New pic

Just changed Eli's pic where you can see him in his baby mohawk. I did talk to him, sort of, on the phone the other night. He yelled "Hi Grandma Ava" and some other stuff which I had to have interpreted. The kid is adorable. :)

Well

It's been a while since I've written anything. I will do better since it is good to write.

Tonight I had planned to plant a flat of flowers at the very least as part of my do-one-thing-outside every night. BUT, I just ran out of energy after dinner. In my defense I had to cook it - chicken asparagus stir fry. It was yummy.

I'm listening/watching the American Idol finale. I have to keep getting up and looking. Keith Urban and Kris Allen. How cool is that? I wonder who Adam will sing with. Before that the adorable David Cook.

So back to the outside of things. Really, I have tons to do. Plant annuals in the front two gardens, clean 3 flower areas out back and rototill so I can use some of that space for veggies. I have leaf lettuce growing and plan to plant spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and maybe some yellow squash. Maybe some peppers too. Who knows what I might do? I have oregano and another herb coming up that I planted last year. I don't know what it is for sure. The little tag disappeared. I'll figure it out soon. :) I'm going to dry herbs in the oven - whatever I don't use fresh that is.

I wish I had some chocolate. lol

I am reading Up Island by Anne Rivers Siddons. I don't know if it's good or not since I just barely started.

Oh, they brought that stupid bikini girl back. arggg

Carmen and I are going garage sale shopping on Friday. I need dining room chairs. I'm going to paint them black - Carmen's idea which appeals to me. Which reminds me, I need to refinish the table. OMG So many projects. Need to do some painting too. I'm just exhausted. :)

Both Joey and Rhiannon have programs Friday so we'll go to those too. Busy day.

Saturday will be yard day without fail. Can she do it? We'll find out. :)

And that is all.

A new pic

I posted the most recent Eli picture. He's such a boy now. He says his name is "Big Boy". Too cute.

TA-DA

Computer update - anti-virus installed. I think finally everything is working as it should.

Ain't life grand?

oh boy

Well, I finally got my computer fixed. The only thing left to do is get my anti-virus software back on. This has been a real challenge and a big ole pain in the arse. First of all, I had to have experts come out and get a bunch of bad stuff and, I think, two Trojan viruses destroyed. Jeesh. It wasn't cheap either. Then about a week after that, Explorer would come up and immediately close. Did you know you could Google "Explorer starts and immediately closes" and get some answers? That cracked me up because I expected nothing from that search. Anyhoo, the solutions given didn't work. I did happen upon this program called "REGCURE" which is supposed to be a miracle cure for what ails a computer so I ordered it, installed it and ran it. IE still didn't work. ARG I then downloaded IE8 at work onto cd and installed it last night and wonder of wonders it worked! REGCURE did clean up a bunch of other crap though, so it was worth the money.

I would be 100% happy except for this little glitch: AT&T, my internet provider, changed anti-virus from Norton to McAfee. Prior to the above problems, I downloaded it and thought all was fine. Now I can't find the damn program so last night I decided to download again. Easy, one would think, no? Ummm no. For some reason, Carmen is listed as the primary account, which I already knew and used her email and password to download Mc the first time. This time, thanks to AT&T, her account was deleted. So now I have to call them and see what I can do about it. I just couldn't do it last night. The pressure was too much! lol I will do it tonight though because we all know what can happen without anti-V software.

I have been watching my brother David's dog since last Wednesday night. Her name is Maggie Mae and she is still cute even though she's 12 years old. She is a lot like my dog, Chica, was. In fact, I had a hard time not calling her Chica the first couple of days. Just to record for posterity, let me talk about the Maggie Experience.

The first night she went to the bathroom in the basement. Not an auspicious start. I would have been really mad, but she was upset and a little confused. I hadn't seen her in a while so she wasn't used to me. Then I let her out later and kept calling her to come in and she wouldn't. It was really dark and she is black, so I couldn't see her. I admit, I freaked out. Then I remembered about this modern invention called the flashlight. :) Got that, went out, but didn't need it because by this time she was laying in front of the garage. I had to drag her in by the collar. Sigh.

The next day after work, I hear banging on the front door. I look out and my neighbor is following Maggie down the street. How in the hell did she get out of a closed gate fastened with a bungee cord? She pushed and shoved and squeezed her chubby self through, that's how. Out I go in my bare feet to drag Ms. Maggie back in the yard. Animal patrol was there. I don't know how long she'd been out and if someone called AP or if she was just around. So Kevin put a big cement block in front of the gate so she can't push it open. I've heard her out there banging on the gate. Little stinker.

So, things are better now with only 2 days to go. She likes me much better now - as well she should. I have fixed her steak, pork chops and chicken. She turns her dainty little nose up at dog food. Dave told me to treat her to double cheeseburgers but I got her bones instead which she has loved also. She did eat dog food last night out of sheer necessity because I wasn't fixing any meat.

So now the only problem is keeping Maggie off the couch where she goes whenever she thinks I won't notice. I told her this morning that she was not a person, but I don't think she believed me.

Also, starting last Saturday, I am watching my friend Amy's cat, Thelma Lou. I go to Amy's house for this. Thelma is very lonely without her mommy, but she is doing ok. I talk to her and pet her. Yesterday I brushed her and played bat the brush.

And that has been my life the past 2 weeks or so.

I may be crazy

I swear I saw an article this morning saying that several people from AIG returned their bonuses in full. Now I can't find it anywhere. I'm sure it wasn't just wishful thinking. Anyhoo, I think that's a great thing. Like I say, they weren't worth it and obviously didn't earn it. wooohoo

Also in the news, they have found $75 million of Madoff's money in Gibralter. Cagey old bastard. Of course, that's a wee dent in the supposed $65 billion he lost for people. Just unbelievable. If there wasn't proof, one would think somebody made this scenario up. Truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction.

I think I had something else to say, but it's gone. I'm a nut. :)

Wednesday is a good day

I've had some serious blues lately so today I am writing about the good things to counteract it. It's like reverse psychology on myself. :)

I am happy about and grateful for:

1. My children and grandchildren, sister, Mom and brothers and other assorted relatives
2. I have a job (can't resist the disclaimer - I'm not crazy about it)
3. I have a home that I really love
4. I have some fantastic friends
5. I have cable TV and can watch NCIS (LOL)
6. My Scrabble game is damn good
7. Eric, Tracy and Eli are coming to visit in June!
8. I am in touch with some old, precious friends.
9. It's almost summer

I'm sure there are more, but they'll have to be listed later.

Last night I was channel surfing and stopped upon the comedian Lewis Black. My God, he is hysterically funny. It was an older show and he was bashing GWBush so of course that delighted me. He segued into a bit about the Old and New Testaments which had me really laughing. You should check him out. Warning: he drops the F Bomb a lot (further endearing himself to me).

I also am delighted with the backlash against AIG. I did see the CEO or some high muckety muck of AIG said the bonuses were distasteful but necessary but I didn't read the article 'cause I don't feel like getting mad right now. Besides that, I won't believe a word of it when I do read it. I have long been railing against exhorbitant salaries. Who in the world is worth millions of dollars a year? No one, in my opinion. Not CEOs, CFOS, sports player or actors. It's ludicrous. The greed of people is unbelievable.

Watching my favorite NCIS last night made me forget about American Idol which, while I don't die if I miss it, I do like to watch it especially since Matt G. from Kalamazoo is doing so well. The reason I'm mad I missed it last night is because Randy Travis was the mentor and I love Randy Travis. I think he is one of the coolest guys ever. Sings good too.

And that is all for now.