Energy Lag

Not much to report around here.



I've read two books and this month's Reader's Digest this week.



Took several naps.



Vaccumed the floor one and a half times.



I think it's time for another nap.

Fallout from the Imus Controversy

There will only be 49 contestants in the
Miss America Contest
this year because no one wants to wear
the banner that says,

IDAHO

I've had about all I can take of this freedom of speech snatching. Imus screwed up but it's not the end of the freakin world! Have you noticed how one-damned-sided this "being politically correct" thing has become? If you're going to fire a man for his mouth over-riding his butt, then get rid of all the Rappers who actually put some THOUGHT into their totally non-politically correct lyrics.

You don't have to listen to something you don't want to hear. There is a switch that says OFF as well as the ON, so USE it.

They'll be burning books next.

I Don't Have the Energy of a Gnat

Sometimes they can be soooo sweet!!

The Chick had loads of energy today. She came to play after her dance recital. I'll post some photos later, after Jerri sends me some. I manned the video camera today and couldn't juggle two things at once. I'm slow like that.

And that Taco Bell Chicken Taco Salad has given me gas. I probably won't be able to stand to sleep with myself tonight.

Down on the way to the Farm

Zach and I took a little trip down to the farm today to take some lunch to PopPop so I took my camera along in case we ran across any critters. Old Town Lake had plenty of fishermen (and women) out enjoying the beautiful day.

These guys told me the fishing wasn't so good today. They were loading up to go home.



These fine folks were from Mississippi. They had a camp set up beside the lake and were cleaning their catfish so they could cook them.


This dude was standing out in the corn field waiting for us to go away.


This old water snake was lying in a ditch on the farm.

They Want to Place the Blame

My heart goes out to the parents and other family members of the students and faculty who were killed or injured earlier this week at Virginia Tech. Noone should have to suffer through such horror. But, is there a way it can be prevented from happening over and over? Who's to blame for not stopping that sick young man who killed and killed and then killed some more?

Should the blame be placed with the security and police departments? Why? They're supposed to be mind readers now? What about his professors, his classmates for not reporting more vigorously how strange he acted? His parents? Current gun laws?

There is probably nothing much that the campus cops or the local city police force could have done about stopping a young man hell bent to kill. The young man who committed mass murder in Blacksburg, Va. made overtures so unwelcome to young women that their ultimate rejections had to be delivered by the campus police. They in turn were troubled enough to send him to a mental health facility after a court magistrate declared him "mentally ill" but not "an imminent danger" to himself or others. (another article I read stated that they had declared him a danger to himself and others). That was in 2005.

There are millions of people, just in our country, that suffer from mental illness, many, if not all, are probably not even aware that they are mentally ill. These people seem to be ignored, overlooked, or simply misunderstood by others. Unfortunately it is too late for all those victims who have lost their lives so needlessly in Virginia Tech and even more sadly, is the fact that there could be hundreds of other Cho Seung-Hui’s out there ready to snap at a moment’s notice. Does one wait until something like this occurs before getting these people the help they need? Our society has a duty to point fingers in the right direction so that we can perhaps stop future tragedies from occurring.

He's da Man!

Zach and his new gas grill and basketball.

Some Days are Diamonds

I was moaning and groaning about having to get out of my favorite, non-binding, duds to take Zach up to the school this evening for their awards thingy for basketball that was finished last month, and for the drawing for the gas bbq grill that they'd sold chances for to earn money for the PTO.

Most of my moaning was due to the fact that, since we live out in the country, we don't have many neighbors that we can con into buying all those chances, and I ended up buying all 20 of the ones he brought home to sell. I let Zach fill out the names, phone numbers, etc on each one (I figured it was writing practice) and he'd done some in his name, some in mine, and some in PopPop's. And since we never win a smell of anything, I considered it a donation, and forgot about it.

They gave out their little medals and the first and second place ribbons. Then they had the drawing for the bbq grill. The little girl who'd sold the most chances put her hand in and pulled out a ticket and they called Zach's name as the winner of the grill, then they turned the ticket over and told him that since he'd sold the winning chance, he'd also won a new basketball.

That child had a smile on his face almost as wide as the Mississippi River and I swear he was strutting on his way up to claim his prizes.

Tunes running through my head

I've been listening to music on You Tube this evening, just some stuff that never gets old to me. I've even watched movies several times just because I liked some of the music they had on them. One of those is From Dusk Till Dawn cause I liked this and this. I've also watched Oh Brother Where Art Thou many times just for "Man of Constant Sorrow".

Best Laid Plans

The freezing temps we had on Friday and Saturday night sure did do a job on some of the, already planted, crops around here. Below is the field of corn on the south side of our house last week before the freeze. (notice the crooked rows, I think the tractor driver was high or something)
This is how that same field looks this week after it got a frost bite. Sure doesn't look promising, does it? (You'll notice the freeze didn't straighten those rows out any.)
below is Mr. Mockingbird. He's got a brother, a wife, and a sister-in-law and the whole danged family has become a little problem. I've been taking photos of them for a couple of years now and they don't seem to mind, they let me get closer and closer as time goes by. But they've sort of taken over the neighborhood and don't want new folks (birds) to move in. We've caught them beating up on the other bird species that like to hang out around here. Today, the mister here tore up Lucy and Ricky's (the dove pair) nest that they'd made in the plum tree. I'm not sure just what to do about these neighborhood terrorists.
This is the cute little bird feeder that Jerri gave me at Christmas. James painted it John Deere green and hung it in the cypress tree for me but the wind's been blowing like crazy and there's no way I'm gonna be able to keep seed in it unless I glue it in or something. (Hmmm,,I wonder if duct tape would work and still let the birds get a bite? ) Anyway, I was going to buy one of those pole things with a hook on it this week and buy a new feeder to hang from it so I'd have one closer to the house,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
but that was before I changed the ink cartridge in my printer and the thing took a cranky turn and would no longer work. I was right in the middle of printing out a last minute tax return so I had to get dressed and go into town to buy a new printer so I could finish. It took awhile to search for one that would take the same cartridges as the old one cause I wasn't going to lose that $32 and have to spend more for another new cartridge for the new one.

James went to town with me and we bought 24 more tomato plants to replace the ones that got frozen last weekend. That sneaky, old, Jack Frost better keep his mitts off of these!

Normally, when I finally go to sleep, I'm so falling down tired that I sleep like a corpse. I don't move and if I dream, I don't remember it. There's just a big ole blank spot for how every long I was snoozing. The rare occasions when I do dream are usually if I'm sick and running a fever, or I go back to bed after Zach goes to school, or take a nap. (there was that one time when an accidental dose of codeine made me dream that my head fell off and I couldn't move!)

Anyway, this morning I went back to sleep after Zach left for school cause I was tired. At first I remember dreaming that I heard water running (it was raining outside for real) and I walked outside to find that there was water knee deep in the front yard because the outside hydrant was on and wouldn't go off.

Then I dream skipped, as you know dreams are likely to do, and I was on the old, dirt, lane leading to the house where my sisters and I spent a lot of our youth. My sisters were with me, in an old, grey and navy, Merc Marq that I used to have, and as we were driving down that lane, in the rain (it was raining for real remember), I was having to dodge mud holes that looked to be as big as gravel pits, float through water as wide as a small river, and eventually came to the end of our lane to find the road had washed out and we were sitting atop a waterfall that dropped a long way down into a huge gulch. As we sat there wondering how we could go ahead and knowing we were stuck and couldn't go back, I dream skipped again.

We were in Belgium and don't ask me how I know we were in Belgium, I just knew, in my dream state, or maybe I recognized the language or something, that we were in Belgium, and were standing on this busy little street outside these teeny, tiny shops. I looked at my youngest sister, who was standing next to me, and asked her,

"How'd we get off that muddy waterfall? Never mind, tell me later,,all this talk of water makes me need to pee, where's the bathrooms around here?"

Our middle sister, I'm the oldest, was just coming through a door between two of the tiny shops and she motioned to me that the bathroom was in there. I went through the door into a kitchen where there were 2 women preparing a meal, and there was a kid in a high chair eating some green looking stuff. I asked them, in sign language, where the bathroom was and one of the women pointed to a little, bitty, baby pot behind this curtain hanging over in a corner.

I was using the same sign language to tell the woman that there was no way this big ole butt was going to be able to squat over, or attempt to sit on, and actually HIT, that little bitty pot when the phone rang and woke me up. For Real!

I'm kind of glad I don't dream or don't remember dreams cause that wore me out and I'm sort of afraid to go back to sleep right now for fear I'll find myself in a stew pot in a jungle down in South America, or something.

April Thought it was February for a few days,,,,

See these beauties? I think they bit the dust over the weekend. We woke up Saturday with temps around 27 F, and Sunday evening they only climbed to a mere 30F. I covered some of the little plants on the porch so they may have survived but James's tomatoes didn't like the freezing cold breeze, even though he wrestled the puppy to cover them with large paper cups , so they'll have to be replaced.

We had a good Easter down here. The kids went home full of chocolate and eggs to wreck havoc for their mommies and daddies. They had fun searching for their Easter eggs,,several times. Jillian was the smart one, she was perfectly content to find the first one so she could eat it.

It Doesn't take much to humor me...

I have a new favorite commercial. I love those California Cheese Cows and especially like this commercial.

I'm also partial to the rat on the Charlotte's Web.

Batten Down the Hatches!!

We're having several waves of artic air making their way down from those friendly Canadians the last couple of days and this weekend. The air out that has quite a bite to it!

3:49 PM CDT FRI APR 6 2007
..FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TO 10 AM CDT SATURDAY...
..FREEZE WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY EVENING THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING...

Our poor tomato plants probably won't survive this. James went out to try to cover them but the wind kept blowing the covers off so he gave up. I took plastic bags and covered up the few little flowering plants I've set out and brought two more inside. On Tuesday it was above 80 degree and will be in the 70's again by Monday but in the meantime, I've had to drag out my flannel drawers again.

SYMANTEC ARE CROOKS!

I'm backkkkkkkkkk!! But not with more than an ounce of the 2 ounces of sanity that I once had. Norton can KISS my rosy red LIPS, buttocks, or whatever, those lying, thieving, pirating, SOBs choose after DAYS of dealing with them and their lack of honesty, I went online and did a search for Virus program reviews and I bought myself a NEW one.

I'll let you know how it works out, but in the meantime, neither it, nor the firewall that came with it, has blocked my ability to comment on Haloscan.

I almost feel good!!

Definitely relieved to be done with all that uninstall, install, read this, do that, crap.

I sure hope my title for this post gets top billing on the google search engine so future purchasers of Norton products will be forewarned.

Now, how's everybody doing today?

Haloscan Dilema

I've been snooping to try to find out why I keep getting "attack" messages every time I try to comment on a blog that uses Haloscan and I think I've discovered my Norton's doing it. I went to their site and did a live chat with a tech this morning after waiting for over an hour,,she gave me a link to upgrade my 2006 version that I upgraded to only last summer, then while I was attempting to save the link to do uninstalls and installs of 2007 version, that danged Norton did an regular auto update for me and rebooted my computer.

I lost the link.

I lost my temper.

Norton still does the Attack thing to haloscan comments.

I sent them an email with the Analysts chat ID number and I'm still waiting for a reply.

I've got a headache.

Sometimes I love my email!

A friend sent this to my email today, and although a delightful surgical procedure has exempted me from having to make this sort of purchase now, I can FEEL the agony put forth in this wonderful letter.

AN OPEN LETTER TO MR. JAMES THATCHER BRANDMANAGER AT PROCTER & GAMBLE.

Dear Mr. Thatcher,

I have been a loyal user of your Always maxi pads forover 20 years, and I appreciate many of their
features. Why, without the LeakGuard Core (tm) orDri-Weave(tm) absorbency, I'd probably never go horseback riding or salsa dancing, and I'd certainly steer clear of running up and down the beach in tight,white shorts. But my favorite feature has to be your revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos on being the onlycompany smart enough to realize how crucial it is that maxi pads be aerodynamic.I can't tell you how safe and secure I feel each month knowing there's a little F-16 in my pants.

Have youever had a menstrual period, Mr. Thatcher? Eversuffered from "the curse"? I'm guessing you haven't. Well, my "time of the month" is starting right now. As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging through my body. Just a few minutes from now,my body will adjust and I'll be transformed into what my husband likes to call "an inbred hillbilly withknife skills." Isn't the human body amazing? As brand manager in the feminine-hygiene division, you've no doubt seen quite a bit of research on what exactly happens during your customers' monthly visits from " Aunt Flo". Therefore, you must know about the bloating, puffiness, and cramping we endure, and about our intense mood swings, crying jags, and out-of-control behavior. You surely realize it's a tough time for most women. In fact, only last week, my friend, Jennifer fought the violent urge to shove her boyfriend's testicles into a George Foreman Grill just because he told her he thought Grey's Anatomy was written by drunken chimps. Crazy! The point is, sir, you of all people must realize thatAmerica is just crawling with homicidal maniacs in Capri pants.

Which brings me to the reason for my letter. Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful Iwanted to reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always maxi pad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words: "Have a HappyPeriod." Are you f ______ kidding me? What I mean is, does any part of your tiny middle-manager brain really think happiness - actual smiling, laughing happiness-is possible during a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit pleasurable? Well, did it, James? FYI, unless you're some kind of sick S&M freak girl, there will never be anything "happy" about a day in which you have to jack yourself up on Motrin and Kahlúa and lock yourself in your house just so you don't march down to the local Walgreens armed with a hunting rifle and a sketchy plan to end your life in a blaze of glory. For the love of God, pull your head out, man. If you just have to slap a moronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn't it make more sense to say something that's actually pertinent, like "Put Down the Hammer" or "Vehicular Manslaughter Is Wrong"? Or are you just picking on us? Sir, please inform your accounting department that, effective immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for I have chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will certainly miss your Flexi-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your brand of condescending BS. And that's a promise I will keep - Always.

Best Regards,
Wendi AaronsAustin , TX

Ouch and Dang It!

I'm having hell with haloscan comments, every time I visit a blog bud with haloscan and try to leave a comment, Norton gives me, "An attempt to attack your computer has just been blocked." And sometimes I don't even see a link available for comments, so I hope the blogger buds who are using this will excuse my lack of remarks, but Haloscan Hates me and won't let me!

My back is still giving me problems off and on. The on is mostly every time I try to get up from a sitting position.

I hope everyone is waking up to a fine Monday!