TOOTH ACHING NOT

Partly cloudy with temperatures rising towards the upper 70s. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.

I hate it when the garbage men leave the garbage cans out in the middle of the road and I am all dressed and ready for work and I have go out there and hope that the garbage can doesn't throw up on my work clothes as I pick it up and bring it in.


We got in a game of Scrabble in last night late. My neighbor got home from her evening job about 9:30 so we were able to get a game in that lasted probably until 10:30. I lost again. I seem to be on a loosing streak. Right now from March 8th for a total of 50 games I have Won 21. Well I guess looking at those numbers on paper I am just shy of half won and half lost.

Sat on my front porch this morning, it was absolutely beautiful. No humidity like yesterday and the sun was clear and bright and there was a nice breeze. I am so looking forward to next week when I am not working anymore. I am going to try to walk in the cemetery by the house, lots of roads weaving around the big area.


At around dusk every night my husband makes and effort to get our cat Buddy in the house. He is out hunter and he loves to be outside after dark, as all cats do I am sure. However, we not only have small field animals like mice, snakes, frogs etc., we have large animals in our neighborhood like, opossum, skunks, raccoons, and deer. My husband doesn't like leaving him out, a skunk spraying would not be fun. The other night Buddy would not come. He tried enticing him with treats and he called and called and finally he was within his reach but Buddy just kept walking further and further toward the dark cemetery and my husband couldn't grab him. So my husband came in very frustrated and threw up his hands and said, "that's it, I am not letting him in later when he is ready to come in and I hope he has to stay outside all night and don't even let him in in the morning." Okay, I said, no big deal for me. Of course my husband is the one who would worry all night. Almost as bad as he would have worried when the daughter was home and coming in late. So we went to bed and Buddy was out playing with his wildlife friends. About a half an hour after we settled in bed I hear him get up. "Where are you going?" I say. He very meekly and quietly like he doesn't want me to hear him says, "I am going to see if Buddy wants to come in." I cracked up into my pillow. He comes back all happy. Buddy came in.

OMG!!!! I had a tooth pulled today. What a mess. About a month ago I noticed that there was swelling around one of my teeth and it was very sore. So I went to the dentist. He took an x ray and told me that the tooth I had a root canal done on and a crown on top was cracked and whole damn thing needed to be pulled. Imagine spending all that money on a root canal then a crown and have to pull it! I was pissed. So I had to take a 10 day course of antibiotic and today I went and he pulled it. It was not easy task. After he took the crown off he realized that the too was what he called "mush" a technical term. He chipped, drilled, scrapped and finally pulled that thing out. I'll tell you with all of the Novocain he game me I still felt pain. To tell the truth the pain from the tooth being gone is a lot less pain then the pressure of the bad tooth under that crown.

So tonight for dinner I had rice.

No work tomorrow, that's a good thing. I am going to the nail salon and then probably to the hospital to sit with my brother while he has a intravenous treatment of lasiks (that's a diuretic). They still don't know why he is retaining fluid.

TIRES AND RIMS

Widely scattered thunderstorms developing around mid-afternoon. Mostly cloudy with temperatures steady near 81F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.

I was looking forward to those storms today. They did not amount to a hill of beans.

Nothing exciting going on around here yesterday, Sunday. Went grocery shopping and bought the ingredients for a shrimp stir fry for dinner and I also invested in a rice steamer. I can never get my rice quite right. So I though I would try this. I don't think the rice was cooked just enough so I am going to keep experiementing. I think maybe I just didn't use enough water. Also it was a little brown on the bottom. Anyone have any clues?

Why can someone tell me why. All I seem to do all day is go around after my husband pushing the chairs in where he just sat. Kitchen at the counter, dinning room on the side he eats dinner, on the other side where he might read a magazine, on the other side where he may look at the mail, all around the dinning room table, everytime he sits he never pushes in a chair.

I worked until 1 today and came home. Checked in on my neighbor she had her grandaughter's baby all was ok there so I went home and whipped up a pan of baked ziti. My daughter was off from work today so she stopoped in to eat. My brother stopped by but he only wanted to eat the watermelon that he brought so I sliced that up and we sat on the front porch and chatted and ate watermelon.

We went with my daughter tonight to a tire store, yea that's exciting. She just bought this "new to her" used car. An Acura TL, black with black leather interior, so in the shadow of her father, he taughter her well, she wanted to put new tires and rims on it, some sort of fancy rims. Husband was all into this. So we spent about an hour at the tire and rim store, didn't even know there was such a thing. Luckily for me it was right next door to a soft ice cream place. Well not so lucky for me because of the calories involved, but lucky for me because I had somethng to look forward to. I don't really like soft ice cream, there is just something fake about it. This ice cream placed did not have hard ice cream so I had to settle, lucky for me they were able to flavor the soft ice cream, this was new to me so I had them flavor it with coffee. After the ice cream was eaten daughter was able to make a decision and the rims and tires were bought. Oh, and while we are shopping for the rims and tires, she is taking pictures of the rims and sending them off to her best girl friend and a guy she knows who lives in Conneticut via text messaging, wow the world of technology. Lucky for her the guy behind the counter was happy to be spending all this time with a pretty girl who knew a little about tires and rims.

THOSE DAMN BLUE JAYS

It was sunny this morning, but then it clouded up and we had some rain. Warm, however, around 80.

I don't particularly like birds, as a matter of fact they sort of give me the creeps sometimes. I like to watch them from a distance. The brown Cardinal is the female and the bright red one is the male. The morning doves fly together in pairs and I like their coos, etc. However the one bird I really really hate is the blue jay. It is very mean to the other birds Especially when trying to get food out of a feeder. We don't feed the birds in the summer but my neighbor does and the blue jays are constantly scaring the little birds away and hogging the feed.

This morning there were two blue jays having some sort of a fit in our back yard at about 6:30 am. And when I talked to my neighbor today she said that they woke her up too. Flying around the yard, both of them together squawking, landing on the garage roof, squawking, swooping down on the grass, squawking. I really could not tell what there problem was, but they did wake me up much too early for a Saturday.

So awake I was, jumped in the shower and dressed. My husband was already up and Adam. He is such an early riser. I think it's from years of living and working on a farm. So we started our errands early and as the morning wore on we realized we were probably too early because we had to wait in some instances for some places to open.

We stopped by Panera for a bagel and a cup of coffee, then the Pet store wasn't opened yet and neither was UPS where I had to go to mail something. So we went to have the car washed and then stopped by Walmart. That is the time to go to Walmart, very quiet. I bought my MIL a couple of things she needed like bras and socks. Picked up a container of cream cheese and some Ritz crackers. My husband bought some cheap towels to have to dry the car after the car wash and I bought a couple of towels for the bathroom for after showers. Then we went to the pet store for cat food and liter. By this time it the jewelry store where I had left my watch to get a new crystal put on, the other one cracked, was open so I could pick that up. Then we decided to go the Eddie Bauer outlet store. By this time it is 9;30, not opened. So we took a ride passed the construction project my husband is working. He took me down the new road, it look good. Then to Starbucks for a frappuccino and headed for home after getting gas. We got home and decided to run back to the Eddie Bauer store to pick husband up some new polo shirts, that was a success, they had many different colors to choose from in his size. I also picked up a couple of tops. Then we stopped at the Italian deli we love and got a sandwich to split for lunch.

The rest of the day was spent sitting on the porch, visiting with my brother who stopped by and my neighbor who stopped in and then her granddaughter and of course the granddaughter's baby.

PURE IMAGINATION

I was never really a fan of the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. But there is a commercial running now that uses an excerpt from the song "Pure Imagination" from the movie. I think it's a commercial for AT & T. I am totally drawn to the song. Gene Wilder is singing it and he doesn't even have the greatest voice. I tried to download the song from i tunes but i tunes won't allow you to download just the song you have to buy the entire sound track and I just want the son. I found the lyrics but it's just not the same without the music.

Pure Imagination

Come with me and we'll be
In a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you'll see
Into your imagination
We'll begin with a spin
Traveling in a world of my creation
Look and see
We'll defy explanation

[Chorus]
If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it

There is no life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there you'll be free
If you truly wish to be

[Chorus]

There is no life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there you'll be free
If you truly wish to be

A BAGEL AND A COFFEE

Mostly sunny with temperatures rising towards the low 80s. Winds light and variable.

I am so jealous today. My daughter has the day off and she is going to be sitting by her pool. I bought one of those noodle things to use in her pool. I can't wait until I am done with this job and then I can spend some time at the pool with her on her days off.

Write after I wrote the above paragraph my daughter called. She had remembered I didn't go to work until ten. She wanted me to meet her for coffee. So off I went and that ended up being a comedy of errors. It was already 9:10 and I had to be to work by 10:00. Whatever made me think I could drive to downtown, find a parking place near the coffee/bagel place, meet up with her assuming she was not too long, wait in line for a bagel and coffee, sit down and eat the bagel and drink the coffee, get back in my car and drive back up the hill to the nursing home all in 45 minutes. Throw in the fact that we both did get there at the same time but my daughter insisted that I not leave my car in the parking spot on the corner where it said bus stop (so we both had to get back in my car so she could find me another spot), parked the car then she dropped her phone and it slid under the car so we had to move the car, get in the bagel/coffee shop and the two guys behind the counter that my daughter lovingly called Bevis and Butthead were as so as molasses in the summertime. Wow was that ever a run on sentence. We were only able to sit down for a minute, take a sip of coffee and eat half the bagel and I was off to my car. I then had to drive around the block to where she was parked so I could give her the float for her pool and the noodle for her pool so she could have them for today. I started up the hill toward the nursing home at 9:54. It really would not have been bad if I were a few minutes late but I was relieving the receptionist at the front desk for her 10:00 break. I clocked in at 10:01. That was totally not worth the coffee and bagel but totally worth visiting with my daughter for well maybe 15 minutes.

I worked until 3 today came home and chilled on the front porch. My daughter was coming over for dinner so we waited for her had dinner and that was that for the day.

A SHORT ONE

Widespread showers and thunderstorms developing by early afternoon. Partly cloudy with temperatures rising to near 81F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.

Well those storms didn't amount to much. They brought intervals of heavy rain but no thunder and lightening.

Chilled on the front porch after a nice steak grilled to perfection by the husband.

We stopped by to see MIL. I don't know if I mentioned but she lives just down the road from us in an assisted living facility. A long story about how she ended up there, a post all of it's own someday when I can wrap my head around how to write it without my head blowing up.

She is doing well there. They keep them very busy. She is 83 and starting to feel the effects of some health issues.

THE HUNTER

Mostly cloudy today with the high about 75. Very humid.

The AC is on in the house today. Humidity is up. It rained all night but no storms. So I could only listen to the rain drops as I fell asleep.

The Director of Nursing had me going crazy today with projects she kept coming up with. I worked until almost 4. I was going to go to the grocery store after work and get something for dinner but I ended up going right home I was beat. After I was home for a bit husband convinced me to jump in the car with him so we could go get some fresh lettuce and tomato so we could at least throw together a tuna, lettuce, tomato sandwich for dinner. We even stopped at the bakery for fresh bread.

When we got back from the market, pulled in the driveway, got out of the car and there was my little hunter, my cat Buddy come towards us with a chipmunk in his mouth. We started yelling, Buddy, put that chipmunk down. The poor think was still alive and he was so proud of what he got he was bringing it to us.

One time my little hunter was crying at the front door. Well we have two doors that lead into the front foyer. One is big wooden solid cherry wooden door and just beyond that is a single French door with all little windows in it. The big wooden door was open and Buddy was standing at the French door meowing to come in. I wasn't paying attention but apparently he had a snake in his mouth that he had laid down on the floor so he could meow to come in and just as I opened the door he reached down to pick the snake up and carry it in past me. I quickly slammed the door shut much to his surprise. "What, I can't bring the snake in to play with?"

Everyday as the weather got warmer this Spring, I would come home from work and find a mouse sitting at the back door, dead of course. He is so proud of his catches. I tell everyone that someday he is going to bring a bigger wildlife guest home, he probably tell them I will feed them.



This photo is a picture of the Great Hunter resting after a full day of stalking his prey.

I got an e mail from my cousin's daughter today saying that her and her friend are going to fly up to New York City for a weekend in July and she wanted to know if my daughter and I wanted to meet them there. I know my daughter is going to be psyched. Her friend is from Italy and owns a home across the street from my cousin's daughter. She goes back and forth to Italy like I would go back and forth to the grocery store. She only lives in Florida part time and she has never been to NYC, so this should be fun. She wants to go to a Broadway show and do some shopping and we will probably stay in a hotel right in midtown. My daughter is such an old hat at traveling to the city. Her and her friend are old pros at driving there, finding the best place to stay and the best spot to leave your car. And that's just it, she is going to want to drive down because she has done it so many times and I hate the traffic. I am going to have to find me some Valium or something to take before we get in the car. I know she will not consent to taking the train, which I really enjoy. But there is no sense in me taking the train and her driving.

My daughter's friend, the one she goes to NYC all the time with is serving in the military as a Sergeant in the Air Force. When they go to the city sometimes they are able to get a reservation in one of the military hotels down there. My daughter said the couple of times they stayed it was very nice. They took two brownstone private homes that were joined together and made them into one hotel for military personnel.

WE'RE GOING CRUISING

Today was a mostly cloudy day, rain threatening most of the day, but warm.

My daughter and I are going again this year on a cruise in September. Last year was our first we went with my cousin and her two daughter's and three of their friends and one of my cousins from where I live and a friend of the family. Thirteen of us all girls. It was a blast. Since my cousins lives in Florida and we cruised out of Ft Lauderdale, we went a couple of days before the cruise date and stayed a couple of days after. We will cruise from Miami to Key West then to Cozumel, Mexico and back again. Four days Thursday through Monday. The cruise is booked but I didn't book the flight until today, So that is done. Now I have to loose about 50 pounds to look and feel better for this vacation. Ok maybe not 50, I think I will take 10 pounds at a time.

This is a picture of Cozumel lookig from the ship just as we entered the port. There is a beautiful pier and the little shopping village is all newly remodeled. There is no need to go into the actual city of Cosumel. There are little carriages drawn by a man on a bicycle, free transportation to the village.

FOREVER 21

Mostly sunny with temperatures rising towards the low 80s. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.

We had a little luncheon for someone at work today who is leaving. Everybody brought a dish. I brought an Italian Potato salad, an old recipe my mother has made for years and I don't even know where it came from. Some day I will post all of my odd recipes. It's cooked and peeled red potatoes, hot cherry peppers that have been seeded and chopped, chopped red onion and dressed with Italian salad dressing. I use Good Seasons dry mix that you make with your own olive oil and red wine vinegar.

That kind of made the day go by faster. I had some ta ks to accomplish for the Director of Nursing today sine the Assistant to the Administrator is still out sick as it the Administrator. She was quite impressed with my quick action for both tasks.

My replacement is going to work with me for 8 hours this week. It really should not take her that long to learn the system.

I went into work today at 10 and got done at 2:30 today I had a doctor's appointment at 3. I try to go to the podiatrist at least once a month. Since I am a diabetic it is important to make sure my nails are cut by someone other than myself, I can't risk getting a cut on my feet.

Got home and threw together dinner. Jumbo scallops sauteed in lemon butter and garlic, over rice.

After dinner I drove to my daughter's house and we went to the mall. She wanted to go into Forever 21. She picked out a few summer dresses to try on and we headed to the dressing room. There was no where inside her dressing room for me to sit so I stood outside her dressing room door and every time she had on something new she would throw open the door for me to see. She was occupying the first dressing room at the beginning of a corridor that had 24 dressing room. What a weird experienced that was. I would look down the aisle of dressing rooms and one at a time a door would fling open a petite little girl would step out, call to her friend maybe two or three doors down, she would step out, they would squeal at each other about how cute each one looked the they would run back in behind the door and do it again. This was happening with with two or three groups of girls. You never knew what door was going to swing open and who would step out wearing what. It is not the most sophisticated clothing store out there, my daughter says nothing is less than $20 and she certainly would not be shopping there if is wasn't for just a couple of sun dresses for weekend wear. This store was huge, I was exhausted after I left there. Stores should not be that big, it just makes you tired of walking around them. Plus they jam so much stuff onto a rack that you can't even look at each item. Geez was I frustrated.

FIFTEEN YEARS AS A CATHOLIC PRIEST

The three big HHH's for today. Hazy, Hot and Humid.

Got an early start this morning. Stopped by the bank, got the car washed, went to Home Depot. Stop by my daughter's, she had to go to work at 2 so we didn't stay long. Came home and I was so beat. It was so hot. I took a long nap on the living room couch. I think these antibiotics and pro-biotics I am taking are wearing me down.

I had to go to a 4:00 Mass at the church where my cousin is Pastor. He just recently took over as Pastor of this church but he has been a priest for 15 years so his parishioners decided to throw him a party. The Mass was very nice, the music was beautiful and his sermon was very good. The parishioners put on a lovely reception with plenty of finger food and desserts.

HOT SUMMER DAY COOL POOL

Widespread showers and thunderstorms developing by mid evening. Mostly sunny with temperatures falling into the low 70s. Winds WNW at 15 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.

A perfect day.....My daughter asked us to sit by her pool today. Hardly anyone there. The water was sooo cold, refreshing though, kind of warm here today. She doesn't have to be to work today until 6. She doing a floorset at her store. She will work all night and have tomorrow off.

I am so proud of my daugher. She owns her own little villa, she has a very good job, knows how to have friends, never was one into big drinking even in college and stayed away from the drug scene.

My daughter's friend Amanda came by the pool. She is a celebrity in this area. She lost over 100 pounds on Weight Watchers and then joined a contest online for Progresso soups. She had to write an essay, why she loved Progresso soup and they choose, oh I don't know maybe the top 20 essays and then they posted the girls pictures on the Progresso website and visitors of the site got to vote for the best essay. Her essaY told about how some Progresso soups have 0 points on WW's and how that it was a big part of her weight loss. The prize was $1,000, a trip to NYC for a full make over. Hair, makeup, clothes and a two night stay in a swanky hotel. She won one of the top three spots and was awarded the prizes I just mentioned. She also has become a marathon runner. She just did a marathon in Disneyworld in Florida.



This was the first I had seen her since her celebrity status, so it was fun to hear about her excitement.

LAKES

Today was beautiful, high about 80, sunny no humidity.

Went into work this morning at 9 and worked until 3. I actually did a written letter of resignation. I put a copy in the Administrator's mailbox, she is still on medical leave. A copy to the Director of Nursing, a copy to the Assistant Director of Nursing, a copy to the girl in HR, she is still out on sick leave and a copy to the girl who does payroll. I dated it today and made it effective July 2, 2010. Now everyone is clear on my intentions and there is no question about when I was leaving. I did tell them that if the Administrative Assistant was not back by then from her medical leave I would extend the effective date to accommodate them.

Husband took me to a really nice restaurant one of our favorites for dinner. It sits overlooking one of the many lakes in our area. We are so lucky to have so many lakes in this area.

When I was growing up my parents didn't have a car. As a matter of fact my father didn't get his driver's license until about the time I did. We lived in the city and everything was within walking distance. My father walked to work and my mother called the local grocery store, placed an order and they delivered it. So because we didn't have a car we had to be very creative with our vacation plans. My father would take two weeks off, probably one week at the end of June and one week at the beginning of July. As a matter of fact I think the company totally shut down during those weeks and they had to take their vacations then. One of the many lakes in our area was very conveniently on a public transportation line........a bus. So everyday for two weeks my mother would pack a picnic lunch and a beach bag full of towels, suntan lotion (back then we used suntan lotion not sun screen) and sand toys. My mother, father and my brother and I would walk to the corner of the block we lived on and hop on the busy, probably pay a dime each to ride, and get off just a few steps from the sandy beach. We would stay there all day.

After those two weeks were over we would hook up with a group of relatives from the block we lived on and we would pile into a few cars early on a Sunday morning for an all day stay at another lake that was not on a bus line. There was a female relative who was in charge of planning the food for the day and believe me it wasn't just sandwiches or hamburgers and hot dogs. We started with breakfast. Fried eggs, bacon, home fries and fresh hard rolls with butter. Coffee was made in a percolator on the little Coleman stove. Of course fresh donuts from the bakery were brought too. Then for lunch she would bring out the biggest pot, fill it with water and we would feast on her homemade meatballs and sausage and tomato sauce. My mother would always bring her famous chocolate cake. The one that I love to recreate with the mocha frosting. She always put strong black coffee in her made from scratch cake and strong black coffee in the frosting. We would have floats and tubes and row boats. There had to be at least 25 of us.

Tonight I had the most refreshing ice cream treat. We went to our local ice cream shop and picked up a half gallon of vanilla ice cream and a bottle of root beer. We took it home and made root beer floats, wow were they cool and refreshing.

DELICIOUS DINNER/NO APPETITE

Today was very cloudy and drizzly. High temperature of only about 70.

The sun finally showed about 6:00 PM. That was a waste. My daughter had the day off from work and the forecast originally said turning sunny and warm. She was going to sit by her pool.

Going on my second 10 day course of antibiotics, why didn't I realize that the yeast infection was eminent. I was eating yougur but that did not work. So I had to call the OB/GYN this morning and they had to call in a script to the pharmacy for me to pick up after work. It's been so long since I have had an infection like this I did not realize you could get medication for oral use and only four days. I hope this works soon and I hope this tooth calms down soon. I am a mess.

I was able to get some dinner cooked tonight for my husband and me and my daughter. Fettuccini Alfredo with chicken and broccoli.

It's going to be warm this weekend a change from the lousy rainy weather we have had all week.

Now that I am looking forward to not having to go to work everyday I may just plan a little weekend get away for me and the husband.

DOCTOR'S AND DENTIST'S

Today was mostly cloudy with rain on and off high about 70.

Started out my morning with a dental appointment at 8:15 am. A real aching under a tooth that has a crown. I figured that the tooth needed a root canal so the crown would have to come off temporarily until the root canal was done and then the crown had to go back on. He took some x rays and found that that tooth already had a root canal and that the tooth under the crown was fractured, with no way to fix it. So now after spending all that money for a crown and a root canal the tooth has to come out. DAMN!! First, however, I have to go back on antibiotics to get rid of the infection before he can pull the tooth. A ten day course. They will extract the tooth on the 29th.

I left the dentist office and dropped off the perscription for the antibiotic and waited for it. Picked up a iced coffee from DD on my way to work.

I spoke briefly today with the Assistant Director of Nusing. Since the Administrator and her Administrative Assistant and the Human Resoources person are all out on medical leave, the Assistant Director of Nursing was the only one left. I told her that I was getting ready to hand in my resignation, but that I was really confused as who to address it to in everyone's absence. I told her I will be sure to wait until the Admin Asst came back before I left. She said I could probably just hold the letter until we know what day she will be returning and then I could date it for whatever date I want to date it for.

I am really getting excited about leaving this job and having nothing to do. I may get bored after a while, but then again maybe I will enjoy. I can go to the gym whenever I want to or take a walk in the cemetery by my house, which has miles and miles of paths). Start cooking again, nice health dinners and shopping everyday if I have too to get fresh fruits and vegetables.

I worked until 3 and then I had an appointment with my regular doctor today for my four month check. All of my blood work numbers were great. Even though I gained some weight and he wasn't really too concerned about that.

CATH LAB AND SEMI ANNUAL SALE

I forgot to talk a little about my Monday.

I knew on Sunday afternoon that they were going to do another catherization on my brother on Monday morning but no one could tell me what time. So I assumed that it would be first thing in the morning so I planned to get there about 7:30 am. So I got there early and then couldn't figure out whether I should go to the cath lab first or to his room. I went to the cath lab and there was no one there. I saw one of those little desk bell thingys you hit if you need service like in a small grocery store, but I though how annoying that must be. So I had to walk all the way to other end of the hospital to his room and guess what, he was already gone to the cath lab. So back I went. This time I rang the bell and one of the nurses came out from the recovery room and said that he was almost done so I waited. He was finished at 9. I went up to his room with him and the nurses said that he was be able to go home about lunch time. So I went to my office and told them I would stay for a bit and then i would be leaving for the day. They were not too happy about that but hey, its my brother.

So we left the hospital about 12:30 and we went to have a nice lunch something other than hospital food for a change. He had to stay with someone for 24 hours just in case the artery where they inserted the cath tube decide not to hold. Chances were very slim that this would happen but we had to be cautious. We stopped by his apartment to pick up his laundry so I could do that while he was with me then to the pharmacy to get his new prescriptions. The doctor put him on a drug they have not tried before for pulmonary hypertension. Well the pharmacy could not fill the prescription without prior approval from his insurance company because the new drug would cost $3,000.00. But, he needed to start taking it right away and it would take about three days to get approval, so he called the doctor's office and they told him to come to their office and they would give him a script for three days instead of 90 days to start with. So back to the doctor's office which was back at the location of the hospital. We finally arrived at my house at four. Now I have to think of something to cook for dinner for everyone. My husband had a brilliant idea, lets order BBQ from take out. So we ended up with ribs and pulled port, cole slaw and mac and cheese, such a health dinner for someone who just came out of the hospital. He is in for a rude awakening when the visiting nurse comes to see him and gets him on a nutritional diet. I could not get my brother to stay the night, he just wanted to go home to his own bed. So he promised to keep in touch throughout the evening and first thing in the morning.

My daughter on the other hand had to do an overnight floor set at her store. A semi annual sale event started today and store had to be set up for the sale. She was scheduled to work from 5 pm to 2 am, with the understand that they would probably be there until 5 am. I fell asleep early last night and work up with a start at 2:40 am and my first thought was I did not hear from her that she was home. So I texted her to see if she was still at work. She texted me back and said yes she was still there but things were going great. The next thing I new it was 5 am and she was called to say she was home.

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY LITTLE TOMMY WANTS TO PLAY

IT RAINED ALL DAY TODAY SUNDAY JUNE 14TH

My cousin, the whose husband just died has a beautiful home with an in ground pool and beautiful outdoor furniture and a gazebo. For years they have been hosting Sunday get together. No formal invitation required. Just come as you are and it would be nice to bring a dish. They always supplied the hot food like BBQ meats and even pasta dishes. There have been not parties yet this summer. Her husband was sick then he passed away and now it has rained every weekend. I am looking forward to these get togethers again soon.

I spent a few hours back and forth to the hospital today. At one point we thought he was coming home, but they are keeping him now until at least tomorrow. Tomorrow they will do another heart catherization to see if the pressures in and around the heart and lungs of eased.

WORKPLACE CONFUSION

TUESDAY JUNE 15TH

Mostly sunny with temperatures steady in the low 70s. Winds light and variable.

I am trying to get up enough nerve to resign my position at the nursing home. I promised to work every day from 10-3 for the next two weeks to cover anything that needs to be taken care of for the Administrator's Administrative Assistant (English: the bosses secretary). So I want to give my notice now so that when she gets back I can leave. But the whole place is in an uproar. The Administrator has not returned from her surgery yet. Complications from a gall bladder operation. And today we found out that the HR person is in the hospital. So everyone is running around like crazy and the Assistant Director of Nursing stuck her head into my office this morning and said thanks for any help you can give us now that Miss HR is also out. This is beginning to be quite difficult. So I just went along and did my work and kept my mouth shut for another day. I will see how it goes tomorrow.

When I got home from work today I had to take my daughter to get her car. She had dropped it off to have her windows tinted. My husband had picked her up at 1:00 this afternoon and brought her to our house and I offered to take her to pick it up. On my way there my brother called. He said he was at the grocery store and he was going to pick up some steaks and come over and we cook grill them. So I said ok, I will make some rice and a big tossed salad. So when I got home that's what I did. My daughter came too so we had a nice dinner. My brother won't be going back to work until Thursday.

My big fat cat is so cute. We stopped by a Healthy Pet center the other day and we almost adopted another cat. They have cats that roam around their store. I think that this is possible because it is privately owned and not a chain pet store like Petsmart. There was this adult cat that was a white long hair with a long haired brown tail, his name was Foreman. He was up for adoption. We almost brought him home. But in the meantime we notice him going into the bucket of little dog biscuits that were sitting by the register. I said are they cat biscuits, they said no but he likes them, they are mostly chicken. So I got a few for my cats. My little hunter Buddy turned his nose up at them. Of course he could care less. He just wants to know when his next hunt will be. Tonight he was chasing a chipmunk around the back yard. So anyway now Bella, the fat cat, loves these biscuits and she knows exactly what you are saying when you ask here if she wants a biscuit.

Now I am just sitting on the porch with my laptop enjoying the cook evening air.

I have to go to the dentist tomorrow morning, YUK!!. I have a tooth that has been bothering me. I think it is a tooth that has a crown so I am not looking forward to the fact that this may mean a root canal.

SATURDAY THE 12TH

IT RAINED ALL DAY TODAY AND WILL RAIN ALL DAY TOMORROW, THAT'S MY OFFICIAL WEATHER FORECAST AND A BIG FAT BLAH!!!

What a crazy day this was. My brother is in the hospital and I wake with thoughts of what I can do for him to make his stay better. I went to his apartment again and got some things for him, clean underwear a couple pair of sweatpants and some long sleeve t shirts. He says it is freezing in the hospital at night. I bring him a fresh bagel from the bagel shop and cream cheese to go with it. I stop and get a fresh brewed iced coffeE from DD. I go and sit with him for an hour or so.

Later in the afternoon my daughter comes over and we go to the hospital again. We sit with for quite a while. My daughter and I had a wedding to attend that evening. We stayed at the hospital until 5 and then decided we would not make it to the church but made a point to get home and dressed to make it in time for the reception at 7.

My daughter arrives in our driveway at 6:45 with a flat tire. She apparently had driven over some small metal object and my husband could hear the air flowing out of the tire. So he drove us to the reception and came back and got AAA to come and plug the hole so that was good.

The wedding was a disaster, not for the bride and groom and their families, of course. They looked perfectly happy. My doughier and I didn't know anyone except the Mother and Father of the Bride. The father is my first cousin. I few people who I assumed would be there opted out. We sat with two couples who we didn't know and they didn't realize that they had mutual friends until part way through the reception. The music was so loud that we could not hear ourselves think and the two couples screamed across the table at each other the whole time. We never stayed long enough to have dessert or wedding cake.

Maybe I would have been a little more tolerant of this situation but I think the events of the past two days were just grating on me.

The place where the reception was held is absolutely beautiful. It is an old fashion bank building in downtown of the city where I live. A huge ball room was the main room of the building where the tellers were situated. The second floor must have served as offices, that's where the cocktails are served. A very small elevator can only handle two or three people at a time. The actual bank vault is used for a cloak room and the basement ladies room use to be where the safety deposit boxes where stored. I remember going to that bank with my parents as a young child, such a beautiful building and recycled in a wonderful way. We went to a wedding there at Christmas time. The ball room ceilings have to be 20 feet high or more. They had a Christmas tree in the ballroom that went all the way to the ceiling and the decorations were breathtaking. Thousands of dollars probably spent on the decorations on the tree alone.

HEART CATHERIZATION

Today was sunny and warm, with a few clouds, but no rain. High about 70.

What a crazy day it was. My brother called from his hospital room to say that they were going to do a heart catherization on him. He had a catherization of his heart one other time and he had it done at a hospital that specializes in heart care, so I assumed he would be transferred to that hospital. But no, they were going to do it immediately and at the hospital where he was. So luckily I was just getting ready to leave the house to go see him and then go to work. I called my supervisor and told her what happened. She was not in the least bit happy. Of course, this could not have come at a more inconvenient time. I was cover for the Administrators, Administrative Assistant while she is out having surgery. Hey, this was my brother and this was way more important.

I got there and was able to see him before he went to the cath lab. I waited alone in the waiting room for two hours while this procedure was done. When they finished, they explained that the heart and lungs just are not working properly, he has a lot of fluid built up in his lungs. It is very complicated and hard to explain so I can't go into great detail. They are going to treat him with intravenous lasik to remove the excess fluid until Monday or Tuesday, they will do another catherization on Monday or Tuesday to see if this helped. They will treat him with intravenous lasik once a week for a while to see if that helps and add some different meds. He also has bad kidney function so they have to watch them while they are treating the fluid problem.

My husband came home from work early so when my brother was back in his room dozing off I came home and we had lunch. Then I had to go to my brother's apartment to get a few things for him. Then I went back to the hospital for a little bit. Talked to a lung doctor, a cardiologist and a kidney doctor. Came home, ran to the grocery store with my husband to pick up a few things. I got my brother some fresh watermelon. He loves watermelon. Went back to the hospital for a bit and now I am home, exhausted.

RADIO NEW AND OLD

Scattered rain showers developing around early afternoon. Mostly cloudy with temperatures steady near the mid 60s. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

When I was growing up I came in possession of a transistor radio. For those of you who might not know what a transistor is, it was as small as an i phone and transmitted, I think, only AM frequency on a small 9 volt battery. At the time it was so cool to have a radio that small and didn't need to be plugged in. I would take it to bed with me at night and put it under my pillow and fall asleep to the top 10 tunes for that week.

I always keep my i phone under my pillow. I have my alarm set, I can check the time in the middle of the night, sometimes I can use it as a night light if the cat is acting strange and I want to check on her without getting up and turning on the light. Never know when a mouse might be getting chased. I can check the weather in the middle of the night if there sounds like a storm is coming, I can play Bejeweled if I can't sleep and I can tun to XM radio or Pandora and listen to my favorite music to fall asleep too. Amazing how things change but stay the same.

I think my daughter has forgotten our home phone number, she always calls the i phone now and she has been known to text me in the middle of the night just so I can tell her that her symptoms of a cold or her sore leg does not mean she is dying.

So my daughter picked up her "new to her car" today. It is a 2006 Acura TL, black with grey interior. She wanted a car that had a little more substance than her old Honda Civic, but she knew she could not afford a brand new one so she opted for a certified used one. She check the car fax online for the car and it had one owner and no accidents. Bought an extended warranty, so I think she covered every precaution you can take when buying a used car.

My husband went with her to pick it up and they had a nice father/daughter lunch after and even went to the mall to pick up and adapter for her radio so she could play her music that is stored on her i phone. She almost didn't buy the car because she was very disappointed that it didn't have a AUX plug for the i phone. But what she got works fine.

I got home from work at three and she was there waiting for me. She wanted us to go for a ride, maybe to do a little shopping and take it to the car wash. It was very shiny and clean when she picked it up but it rained this afternoon. She we are on our way for a little fun and my brother called me to say that he was on his way to the ER. He had a regular schedule cardiology appointment this afternoon but the cardiologist didn't like they way he was having trouble breathing so he sent him right to the ER. They took about 10 vials of blood for testing and then admitted him to monitor his heart. He also has poor kidney function, which we believe now is the result of many years of ibuprofen use as an anti inflammatory for a bad back. The cardiologist will stop in and see him in the morning so I will stop at the hospital before I go to work. This is the view out of the window of my brother's hospital room. The smoke stack belongs to the hospital.

JOBS

Rain showers developing around 9am. Cloudy with temperatures rising towards the mid 60s. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 55%.

What a lousy weather forecast for my day off. Well I had to make the best of it so I went to the nail salon and had my nails done and a brow wax and while I was there I called my cousin to see if she wanted to do lunch. She said yes and I made arrangements to pick her up at her house at noon. I was done at the salon by a little before 11 I had an hour to kill. I stopped by the florist where I had gotten the flowers for my cousin's funeral. When I was there ordering the flowers the owner said she was looking for help.

I have been toying with quitting my job, it is getting rather boring. I just sit in a large storage room at a huge table all day and arrange records all in the same exact order, according the the New York State Health Department. These are records of paitents who have been discharged after a brief stay for rehab, usually due to a broken limb or hip, etc. Then I put the record in a box, records the box number on a spreadsheet and tuck it on a shelf. I was telling the owner of the florst shop that I want to do a job that I have chose because I like it, not take a job out of need. For instance, when I got out of school I took a job with the state of New York working as a secretary(we were called secretaries back then). I took that job because New York State offered excellent benefits and I needed health insurance and a nice pension plan. I left there when my daughter was born to be a stay at home mom after 10 years of working. When my daughter was old enought to go to pre school at age 3 (for two days a week) i took a job at the school where she went to get a discount on her tuition. Everytime she went up a grade and increased her school days I would increase my work week, it was a perfect situtation. When she left there in third grade (it was a school that specialized in early childhood development), I went to the university where I worked for 16 years so I could get free tuition for my daughter (which would have amounted to over 100,000 for a four year degree from this school). Then after she graduated from there and my father was in a nursing home, I got the job I am currently in so I could be closer to him and oversee his care. I do not regret for one minute any of these jobs and I had excellent experiences in all of them and made many good friends that I still keep in touch with; but I want to do something now that is interesting for me. I don't have any experience in floral arrangments, but I am a quick learner and I would just do grunt work. I enjoy working with the public and I told her I am good with computers with she seemed to think would be good for helping with billing.

We hit if off and I spent about 45 minutes with her. She said this is her slow time and that things will pick up again in late summer. She took my number and said she would call me if things got busy and I could come and and we could try each other out. See if I could do the job and if she liked my work. I told her I was also a wee bit OCD about organization and she said she was too.

So, I think in two weeks or so I am going to give my two weeks notice and if the florist job does not pan out I will look for something else. My husband says it's ok if I just want to stay home but I know I need to be doing something, so we will see how this works.

EXCITEMENT.....NOT!!!

Partly cloudy with temperatures rising towards the upper 60s. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.

Had to stop by the hospital this morning and have blood drawn for my every four month check. Since I am a diabetic the doctor has to check my blood every four months. I didn't have to be to work until 10 so it felt good not to have to rush to the hospital to get it done and to work by eight. They are so slow at the lab. I use to go to a different hospital where they were very efficient and fast. In and out in about a half hour. I switched hospitals because now I work for the health organization that doesn't come under the organizaiton where I work. My co-payment is free at the new hospital. So a little inconvenience to save a little money.

After I got that done it was too early to go to work so I stopped by the bank and picked up an Dunkin Donuts iced dark roast and headed to work. I got here an hour early and you would think it was a crime. I had to explain that no I understand I won't clock in yet and no I would not do any work off the clock.

Got done with work at 3 today. Went home and sat and read for a while. Husband came home we had dinner and that was my day. WOW!! I am sure you are all excited to read about this.

Tomorrow is my day off. Let's see what I can come up with for entertaining you.

COLDWATER CREEK I AM SORRY

Mostly sunny with temperatures warming into the low to middle 70s. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.

Well I guess I have to apologize to Coldwater Creek. I was sitting on the porch this afternoon and up the street comes the mailman and he has a box in his hand. I really didn't think it belonged to us because I wasn't expecting anything and neither was my husband and after all Coldwater Creek didn't have any of the items I ordered. We it was for me from Coldwater Creek. Five out of six of the items I ordered were in the box. Apparently the letter they sent was meant to convey that only one of the six items was unavailable. I'll tell you though, that letter was not that clear. It said merchandise you ordered and did not refer to any item numbers of description so I naturally assumed it was all of the items. So Coldwater Creek I am sorry for blasting you on the Internet but I don't think it was entirely my fault.

We had to go to Petsmart tonight to get cat food and liter and my neighbor asked me to get her turtle food. She has an enormous turtle who lives in a fish tank in her dinning room. Not all that appealing, but she inherited it from one of her kids who could not take care of it anymore. She also inherited a parrot of some sort, I know nothing about birds, and all it does is squawk all day long, very high pitched squawk, I don't know how she deals with that. While I am there Petsmart has an adoption center for cats and oh how I hate going to look. I want to take them all home. There was a very beautiful blond colored cat with long hair there tonight and i wanted so much to take him home. I know my one cat, Buddy, would care less. He is very independent and as long as he can go out hunting frogs, snakes, and mice he would be perfectly happy with a kitten in the house. However, our very matronly, fat cat Bella would just have her nose cut right off. My husband and I were laughing thinking about how perturbed she would be having to share space, food and attention with a kitten. I could hear her now if she could speak. "That's it, I am leaving, open the door for me...........no wait I have not had my supper yet. Ok, now I am going............no wait I have not had my nightly treat yet. Ok, I will leave in the morning right after I have had a good night's rest. No, go ahead to work, I will leave when you get back."

I left work today at 1 and headed right to the used book store. The other day when I was there I picked up a book by Ann Tyler, "Ladder of Years." There was another one by the same author and I left it behind. I could not put her book down over the weekend so I had to go back to the used book store to get the other one. I ended up getting two more of hers.

I love to shop at Marshall's. I can get famous name clothing for ridiculous mark downs., but you really have to go there about once a week not to miss anything. I stopped by today and picked up two tops, almost in the same color of blue; but one is for work and one is for everyday.

CRAZY WEATHER

Showers and thunderstorms ending around mid-afternoon. Cloudy with temperatures rising towards the low 70s. SSE winds shifting to SW at 15 to 20 mph.

Went off to the market first thing this morning. I had a recipe that I got off of Tasty Kitchen for salsa and I wanted to get the ingredients. Came home and got my boneless chicken breasts marinating in lemon, garlic and olive oil for dinner tonight. Made the salsa, it was delicious.

It was a very weird weather day. We spent the day on the porch watching thunderstorms roll in, pour rain, clear up, thunderstorm roll in. My brother stopped by and we had a nice visit and he sat with us and watched the storms roll by also. We also enjoyed the delicious salsa and chips. After all was done the weather turned cool and very windy. Couldn't finish reading my book on the porch tonight and I doubt whether we will be able to play Scrabble out there tonight.

I have to go to the Lab at the hospital first thing in the morning for blood work. It's a fasting blood work so I will go as soon as they open so I can get to work by eight.

A THUNDERING SATURDAY

Widespread showers and thunderstorms developing around early afternoon. Mostly cloudy with temperatures rising towards the low 80s. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.

The thunderstorms did not amount to much. We watched them come in from the west and pettered out once they hit the hills just to the west of us.

Yesterday ended up to be a busy afternoon. I got home from work at 1 and relaxed on the porch with my book. At 2:00 my daughter called. She had a busy morning she went to her bank and got preapproved for a car loan. Went the to the car dealer where she had found the car she wanted the last time she was home from CT. She wanted to see what they would give her for her car on a trade. At the bank she got approved for more than she needed and at the car dealer they were giving her more for her car than she thought they would. After that she was off to a hair appointment and now she was calling me to see if I wanted to meet her for lunch. So we met for lunch and we discussed the car. She wasn't sure and she hemmed and hawed. After lunch we stopped by Dick's Sporting Goods and she bought the cutest hammock. She has this small patio outside sliding glass doors in her dinning area in her condo. The Patio is all enclosed with a high fence and very private. The hammock is not one of those rope ones but one that has a canvas type print bed, the colors are orange and yellow. After we left Dick's we stopped by the car dealer and talked more to the salesman and believe it or not she took her deposit back and decided not to go for it. I drove her back to her car at the restaurant where we met for lunch and we were then going to go back to my house. We left the parking lot and I headed for home and where did she head for. The care dealership. I waited at home for her and when she got to my house she told me she signed the papers and she will pick up the car on Thursday.

So this morning we got up early and headed out to do some errands. While we were out I had a really great idea. I bought some Terra cotta colored plastic window boxes and potting soil and yellow and orange marigolds. I called my daughter all excited, woke her up of course and said we are coming with a surprise for your patio. She said great, stopped by Starbucks for me. She was very excited about the patio decorating idea. We didn't put the window boxes on the windows but on the ground just along the fence. She only has concrete on the patio, no real place to plant so we knew we had to be creative with pots. I also got her a citronella candle in a pot to ward off the bugs when she is enjoying a star lite evening on her patio. She also hung some decorative lights on the fence. It is really very enticing.

Most of the afternoon was spent sitting on the proch trying to keep cool with the ceiling fan on. We have central AC but who wants to be in the house when it is so beautiful out.

Over Memorial Day weekend I was checking my e mail and found an exciting offer for 50% off Coldwater Creek merchandise on line. I love their stuff, but I usually wait until they have a sale because I refuse to spend $60 for a summer top. I was so excited. I clicked on their on line catalog and started shopping. I picked out 6 items and I think it came to over $300 but with the coupon the final cost was $158. Everything said in stock, I hit click and waited for my package. A day or so ago I got a mailing form Coldwater Creek which I didn't open right away, I thought it was a receipt for my purchases. I opened it today, much to my surprise, a letter that was saying thank you for you recent order, but we are sorry ALL of the items you order or no long in stock. WTF!!! was that all about. How could every item in the order be out of stock when it clearly showed they were in stock when I placed the order. I may send them an e mail staring my disappointment in their company and I may have to stop shopping there. Has anyone ever encountered something like this with this company?

COFFEE

Partly cloudy with temperatures rising towards the low 80s. Winds light and variable

My husband is not much of a coffee drinker. But he loves our new coffee maker and has a good time picking out the different flavors you can get for it. We have a Keurig, single brew coffee maker.

This coffee maker makes the best coffee and so convenient. Even with a house full of company at the holidays it was easy and everyone got to have the flavor and strength of coffee they wanted.

My brother and I discovered this coffee maker at the hospital about three years ago when my father was there suffering from congestive heart failure. He wasn't on the Hospice Unit but on the same floor as Hospice and one evening while we were visiting we wandered to the lounge for the Hospice patients families and discovered the best coffee maker ever. That Christmas I bought one for my brother and one for myself. We are now hooked. If you have never seen one Google Keurig. When I started the job I am in now I was sharing an office with a women who shared my love of coffee and we got to talking and she had never seen a Keurig. So I bought one of their little Keurig's for our office. I got her hooked. She bought one for her house and one for her apartment.

So this morning on my way to work I had to stop by the market and get some yogurt. My neighbor reminded me that since I am on an antibiotic I should eat some yogurt everyday. So I myself some yogurt and a box of coffee pods for the coffee maker in the office.

DAUGHTER COMING HOME

A few scattered showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy with temperatures reaching the upper 70s. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

The past few days I have been having some weird pain under my right ribs that radiates to my back. I am sure I no what it is. I have gall stones and I think my gall bladder is inflamed. Every since the Memorial Day weekend when all we did was eat and eat stuff that probably was a lot higher in fat content than I use to eating. The gall bladder does not do well with fat. So this morning I ate bland and I had a bland lunch and thing seemed a little better. I have a gastrointerologist that I see once every other year or so so I called him first and the nurse said that if I already no I have gall stones and the gall bladder is acting up then it might need to be removed so I would have to see a surgeon. So I told her I would call my primary care physician and he could advise me. So I did that and I got an appointment to see him right after work. He said that the gall bladder was not "hot" enough to remove, probably is just inflamed like I thought. He told me to eat a "NO FAT" diet and he gave me a prescription for an antibiotic. I have to see him in two weeks for my regular checkup. So I will get my routine blood work done and then see him and we can decide then if my gall bladder should come out. So that was my excitement for the day. After dinner I went to the pharmacy to have the prescription filled and I took my first dose.

I got a picture text of my cousin and her daughter standing with their cruise ship in the background, they are cruising right now out of Puerto Rico their second stop on their cruise. They already had been to St. Marteens. I have been to Puerto Rico and St. Thomas but not St. Marteens. Right after I got out of college that was the hot place to go Puerto Rico. I went with 5 girl friends. We had quite a time. Mostly shopping and hitting night clubs. That was back when I think it was a little safer to go out at night in these popular college places. Never heard about any college students disappearing back then.

My daughter is coming home tonight from CT for good. So I am happy about that.

GROWING UP IN THE CITY - PART I

We called the place where we lived the city. You might see in your mind high rises, traffic and businesses. We were not that close to those things. Our house was the typical two family brick approximately 10 city blocks south of the business district. Both my paternal grandfather and maternal grandfather settled here after following there relatives here from Italy looking for jobs. My paternal grandfather was a businessman, always owned a grocery store. My maternal grandfather worked in steal mills. My parents met probably in the same neighborhood where I grew up. I would not trade this life growing up for anything. Some people say living in the country on a farm is the best life, ours was just as good.

When I think back I find it unbelievable that our neighbors were able to grow fruit trees in their backyards. Just sort of growing wild with no regard to netting them or fertilizing. There was a plum tree in my grandmother's sisters yard, a peach tree in my aunts yard and a pear tree in my best friends yard. And as no surprise a grape vine in almost every back yard. I remember the grapes were so bitter with just a hint of sweetness inside the skin. So we would pop them in our mouths and spit out the insides, suck on the skin and then spit that out. The little curly green strands that grew along side of the grapes were salty and we would pull them off the vine and suck on them. One of our neighbors had a small business behind their house. The first floor as you walked in was a big old fashion kitchen and if you walked through the kitchen you would find yourself in a bakery, well I say bakery but all they made was bread and pizza. Huge wood burning pizza ovens. This is where we got our fresh bread from everyday. We didn't know what sliced white bread until we ventured to a friends house, who was not Italian, and was offered lunch. That's when we were first served sliced white bread sandwiches.

Around the corner from our house was a converted garage where an elderly man sold fresh fruits and vegetables everyday in the summer. He would drive is beat up pick up truck to a local farm and bring the fresh produce in every day. Huge bushel baskets full of fresh produce. I can still smell the fragrance, the old garage smell mixed with the fresh produce. There was a corner store on every corner and you could get a fudgesicle for a nickle. We walked to our elementary school everyday and came home for lunch.

When my brother and I were out of school and working we helped my parents buy a small cape cod style house just outside the city. Until that point my parents had rented an apartment from my aunt who owned a two family. My aunts son was getting married and she asked my parents to leave so her son could have the apartment. It was a blessing in disguise. They were so happy with their new place. My brother and I lived there with them for a quite a while before he got his own place and I got married.

My daughter got to experience a little of this as a baby but nothing she will ever remember. My husband and I bought one of those two family brick houses and converted it into a one family with a small apartment on the first floor, rear of the house when we first got married. We have lots of memories of all the people we rented this little space too. Mostly students going to the local community college and at one time a guy who my husband worked for who had temporarily separated from his wife. We had our daughter there and lived there until she was four. I walked with her in her carriage down those streets, past the elementary school, even shopped in the garage for produce before the old man died. The fudgesicles weren't a nickle but you could still get them. The bakery was gone.

SUMMER READING

Partly cloudy with temperatures rising towards the mid 80s. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.

A beautiful day off today. I really didn't do much. Went to the pharmacy to pick up a script for my husband. Then stopped by the used book store my second favorite place after the supermarket. I could browse for hours. I didn't do that though. I put my fingers on one book and that is the one that I bought. I didn't want to waste a beautiful day on my front porch with a good book. I told the clerk it is so much easier to find a book on a beutiful day in the summer rather than a cold day in the winter.

POST HOLIDAY

Widespread showers and thunderstorms developing by 10am. Cloudy with temperatures rising towards the mid 70s. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 85%.

They promised thunderstorms last night but for us they were quit a bit in the distance. I could barely hear the thunder as I was half asleep. I had a restless sleep. Maybe because the weather was changing and I was waiting for the storm.

I didn't end up putting to much into the garage sale so I only ended up getting $50 out of it. We sold an old bike of my daughter's and I sold a set of dishes that I had gotten when the color scheme in my dinning room was blue. I have decided that white dishes and clear glasses is the only way to go for me in the dinning room. I don't like keeping a color for very long.

My neighbor on the other hand had a lot to sell and a lot to pack up in the end. She says nothing is going back in her house so she will call around to Good Will, Salvation Army etc., to see if she can find any takers for the stuff/junk.

We had a nice relaxing day yesterday. I spent some time sitting at the garage sale, sitting with my husband on the front porch, sitting on the back patio enjoying the breeze, getting my baby fix from my neighbors great granddaughter and sitting with my brother later in the evening when he came to raid my refrigerator. I had plenty of leftovers from Sunday so we just added a couple of burgers and we were all set.

My daughter only has three more days in CT and then she will be home. But the craziness will start because she needs to get buy a car. She leased the one she is driving now with a milegage limit of 15,000 a year for three years. Well with all the driving she has done this last year she has gone over the mileage. They will charge 25 cents a mile for every mile you go over and she still has some months left on the lease. She never anticipated that she would be traveling for instance to CT for five weeks and her and her girlfriend drove to NYC a couple of times. So she will try to see if she can turn in the car early on a new one of the same brand. She may have to eat the remaining couple of months on the lease. But that will be better than trying to keep the mileage down on the car to the end of the lease. She did get paid for mileage from the company she works for driving back and forth to CT so that will help.

Has this every happened to you? I was in the market doing grocery shoppping on Sunday morning bright and early with my husband. I was going up the aisle and someone is come down the aisle toward m. I realized that I knew this person, someone I grew up with, someone who was in my life up until they married back in 1971 right as we got out of high school, someone whom I have eaten many dinners at their house, played in their backyard, socialized with their family and extended family. You say hello with a great big smile. You are obviously so happy to see them, it's been so long, probably the last time was at a wake of a mutual friend or family member. She had two little children with them, probably grandchildren, I was anxious to find who they belonged too. This person says hello and before you can continue the conversation, they turn and keep on walking. I was stunned, what was that. I am still bothered by it. I have never done anything to hurt this person, why did she shun me?

My daughter's condo is in a community of condo's that have bi laws, I think this is common with this type of living, at least in this area. They have rules governing many things, like garbage cans need to be put out for pick up during a certain time period and brought back in during a certain time period after they have been emptied. So while my daughter is away we are taking care of her garbage. There would not be any garbage accumulated while she was gone if she didn't have a cat and if she didn't come home for two days at a time and then leave again. And coincidently she is never home on the days the garbage is picked up. So instead of worrying about getting the garbage cans in and out on cue we just packed up the garbage yesterday and brought it home and put it with our garbage this morning. Well what I am getting at is that I was helping my husband by reaching for the rear door of his older model Jeep Cherokee, instead of grabbing the handle of the door I grabbed under the frame of the license plate holder and pulled. I wasn't looking at where my hand was I was feeling and it felt like the handle of the hatch. I heard a crack and I thought I broke the handle, once I looked I realized I had cracked the license plate from and bent the license plate. UT OH!!! My husband just threw up his hands, just to add to the manny careless things I do. I tell him I make life for him interesting. He said you better blog about this.

We visited daughter's cat this evening, everything is good there. Two more days of this going back and forth. Her condo is only about 15 minutes away but I hate traveling during rush hour. I could not get my husband to agree on eating leftovers again today. So we ordered Chinese food for dinner. A day off tomorrow. Maybe I can come up with a new recipe for dinner. Nothing planned for my day off so I will just play it by ear.

The Assistant to the Administrator where I work is going to have surgery on the 11th of June so they are going to ask me to pick up some of her slack. This probably means I will work five days a week for the two weeks she is suppose to be out and maybe an hour or two more a day. I don't mind as long as it doesn't last all summer. And the extra pay will come in handy for our vacation in September. My daughter and I are going on a cruise out of Miami with my female relatives who live in Ft Lauderdale and a couple of female friends of ours where we live and a cuple of friends of theirs from Florida. Last September we went and their were 13 of us. We voted one girl off, LOL!!! She was a friend of one of my cousins in Florida. She just didn't fit in. She doesn't know we voted her off. She just wasn't invited and probably would not have come any way. The only reason she was able to come last year was because one of the other friend's of my cousin was paying for a double cabin and didn't have a roomate. The cast off from this year didn't have the money to go last year so she was invited for a free ride. One of the reasons it just didn't work. We had a blast. We are so looking forward to it again.