WALMART EXPERIENCE #3

I'll start by saying that I've avoiding posting anything attempting to be funny here for the past week.  There have been some very hard life issues that several of my friends have had to go through recently.  Too many in the past few weeks, actually, one as recently as Christmas Eve.  Peace to those of you I'm referring to.
MY family is small, so I think of my friends as my family also.

But... I decided that I know first hand that we have to keep laughing.  So...

Last week, three days BEFORE Christmas, I went to Walmart to make a return.  I had bought SON a hoodie during WALMART EXPERIENCE #2, but paid attention to the hanger, which said "L".  The actual size was "XXL", which I didn't notice until the next day.  I should have known that, at Walmart, the hanger size and the actual size are, most likely, never the same.

MY fault.  Walmart should advertise that customers should never expect too much from them.  Because they are Walmart.  And I kept telling myself that for $20 I could just roll down my car window and give the hoodie to any one of the 1.2 million homeless people who are here on every street corner.  And I wouldn't have to endure Walmart one more time.  But I didn't do that.

I went back to return the hoodie, three days before Christmas, thinking that NOBODY would be returning things BEFORE Christmas.  I was #17 in line.
And there were only two "customer service representatives" behind the counter.

I waited patiently. Patiently.  PATIENTLY.  For 31 minutes.

Here's what the woman in front of me was returning........

FRITOS.  TWO PACKAGES.  $2. 49.  She waited in line for at least 30 minutes to return two packages of Fritos.  She was all giggly, and kept turning around to the rest of us in line, thinking we were getting her humor.  Apparently she had had a party and these were the leftovers.  The "customer service representative" had to call for help.  He wasn't sure if Walmart could take back "consumables".  Turns out, they can.

When I finally got to the counter, I gave the gentleman my hoodie.  I tried to explain that the store had been negligent in putting the proper garment on the proper hanger. I wanted him to be aware of this, and maybe explain to management how they could improve their customer's experience.  He took it, said ok, grabbed my receipt, gave me my money!

When I left, the birds were beginning to arrive.  A definite sign I had been there too long.  I got in my car quickly, happy that I had survived returns at Walmart.

Traffic was horrible getting out of the parking lot, and then onto the street where I needed to be.  I waited in line, once again.

Here is the truck I was behind.......

Notice the trailer hitch on the truck.......

Yep.  Scrotum, two balls.  Silver.  Shiny.  Swinging away on the back of the truck.

Here's a bad close-up from my phone.....

I wanted, so badly, to follow the guy home to see what he looked like.  What the man looks like who would put this (these) on the back of his vehicle.  HUSBAND said that they are pretty common, come in colors, and that most of the men driving the trucks are usually short and ugly.  I still didn't get it.

It did, however, give me a lot to think about on my way home.  I decided that the woman who returned the Fritos was probably in the passenger seat.

I am never bored.

DECKING THE HALLS...

I've avoided decking them.  I've put it off, and off, and off.  But I decided to get serious a few nights ago, deciding on the minimalist approach.  Less is more.  Whatever.

I tried to get everyone in the spirit.  I lit some candles.  I put the dirty dishes in the sink (the dishwasher was full), I put on some laundry.

Here is the one and only new holiday decoration I purchased this year...

His name is Max the Moose, and I adopted him, for 20 bucks, from Randall's, while I was shopping for Thanksgiving groceries.  He's pretty cute, don't you think?  The fam agreed.

Luci did her best to intimidate Max (Luci is a crack-baby, remember)...

Max never moved, so Luci gave up pretty quickly, and went on to other interesting things I was pulling out.

Then she realized that there were shopping bags all over the floor.  The Pier One bag was her favorite.  She thought she was hiding.  I was hoping if I ignored her she would STAY IN THERE for a while!

Eventually, Luci exhausted herself...

Meanwhile, Pancho was helping in his usual way.  He always does what is asked of him.  He wasn't really concerned with Max the Moose, either.  He was used to my adoptions over the years... hence, Luci!

Anyway, I persevered, and achieved the minimalist holiday affect I was going for.  It's minimally festive.  Perfect.

HUSBAND got into the spirit too, asking what he could do to help (NOT!).  But I asked him if he would help me untangle some lights, and he said, "@%#&%$, sure!"  He's always loved the holiday season.

He was actually very helpful.  And he enjoyed watching my pathetic efforts, and the show I was apparently putting on.

My family loves having their pictures taken, don't they?  He DID, however, agree and approve of these pictures - just want to say that.  I told him he could show off his Longhorn Snuggie - a gift from DAUGHTER last holiday season.

So, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, friends!!!  Enjoy.

WALMART EXPERIENCE #2

I had so much fun at Walmart last Friday (previous post) that I went back on Tuesday.

This is what we happy, jolly Tuesday shoppers at Walmart had to face at dusk...

See those little specs on the top edge of the building?

Those were Grackles.  Black birds to some of you.  In Austin they are Grackles, and they are obnoxious, annoying, invasive, really nasty, aggressive birds.  And when they like a place, they REALLY like it.  They like Walmart a lot more than I do, apparently.

There were 700 billion of them in the Walmart parking lot.

So, all the happy, jolly shoppers who couldn't get into their cars because their cars were covered with Grackles, were pulling out their cell phones, muttering the word "Hitchcock", and taking pictures. Me included.

Getting home to start wrapping all those gifts in our baskets suddenly wasn't important.  We all had to get pictures of the birds.

And I'm sure we all drove home trying to see through the bird shit on our windshields, thinking, "Wow, that was really something.  Maybe we'll go back to Walmart tomorrow."
I'm not sure how Walmart pulled this off, but they have some good PR people.

Happy shopping!

MY WALMART EXPERIENCE

We all have Walmart stories, don't we?

I made the mistake of going to Walmart today when I really wasn't feeling very well, but I certainly didn't want to go on the weekend.  There are just occasions when a Walmart run is necessary.  Today was that day for me.

My usual experience is, that while I KNOW there are intelligent people who shop at Walmart, I just don't usually encounter any of them.

My two memorable Walmart experiences today were...

First,
I saw an adorable young man contemplating wine glasses.  He was, maybe, 25 years old, and I could see that it was important to him to buy the perfect set of wine glasses.  I made up my own, quick, little romance novel in my head.  I enjoyed watching him.  He was there for a while.  And, although I know there are stalkers at Walmart, I was not one of them.

Second,
here we go......  THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED!
I was in the Pharmacy area trying to find earplugs.  (I wear them from time to time because Pancho and Luci are very noisy at night.)  So I hear these two "guys" talking about their menopausal wives, so my ears perked up.

At that point I had been in Walmart for 1.25 hours.  1.0 hours too long.

"Lucky to be married" guy #1 was saying that his wife was going through menopause and she was cranky and always hot - he could never put the thermostat on the right temperature for her, and she was always kicking the covers off the bed at night.

"Lucky to be married" guy #2 asked how old she was.  "Lucky-to-be-married" guy #1 said 42.

"Lucky to be married" guy #2 said, well you ain't seen nothin' yet just wait 'til she's 45 then she really starts sweatin' and a whole lotta other shit.

"Lucky to be married" guy #1 said, oh really shit.  "Lucky to be married" guy #2 said, oh yeah 45 is when the real sweatin' begins.

I walked a few steps around the end of the aisle to get a look at these charming fellas.  Guess what they were buying???????  Guess!!!!

CONDOMS.  Yep.  Two guys with menopausal wives buying condoms together at Walmart on a Friday night.

They saw me starring at them and actually said, oh sorry I guess we were being a little loud.  I smiled and told them that they were just lucky I was passed 45.

Then it occurred to me that I thought it was funny that the earplugs were close to the condoms.  I actually laughed out.  And my mind went off on a whole other thing about that.

Happy shopping.

LAUNDRY

I have laundry piles.  A few piles.  Piles of laundry. Many.

And there are only two of us, now, in the household.

This is why I always have piles of laundry...

Pancho and Luci won't let me NEAR the laundry basket.

Can't do laundry without a laundry basket.

So.

SQUIRRELS

(First off, I had to look up how to spell squirrels.  I kept getting it wrong.)

I sat outside for an hour or so this afternoon.  Absorbing some vitamin D.  Enjoying the absolutely beautiful Austin fall weather.

And I wanted to watch our Chickadees.  I've been noticing the influx of Chickadees lately. Hearing their wonderful chirps, and seeing them flitting around our backyard.  I love those funny, little birds.

I took my camera out with me, thinking it would be fun to take some pictures of the cute little Chickadees.

Well, once I sat down, relaxed, got my camera ready... Nothing.  Not a Chickadee.  Not a bird.  Nothing within a hundred miles.

Sooooo, I got caught up watching two squirrels.  Yes, I did.  For close to an hour.  What can I say.

I should give my insights about squirrels to some "squirrel expert" now, because I saw some stuff.  Not unlike humans really.  Let's just say it must be squirrel mating season.  Pretty interesting.

Anyway......  here's one of them, chewing on an acorn.....

And here he/she is sharpening his/her teeth for yet another acorn, or whatever.....

Then, here he/she is, starting to realize that somebody is watching him/her, and taking his/her picture......

And, then, finally, here he/she is giving me the "Cujo"/"Exorcist" eyes.  Telling me to stop taking his/her picture, and to go to hell.

I ran inside before he/she had time to lunge at my face.

Like EVERY other member of my family, he/she didn't want his/her picture taken.  He/she just couldn't put his/her hands up in front of his/her face.

Pretty exciting afternoon.

AIRIN' IT ALL OUT

or other possible titles for this blog......

"A Good, Good Feelin'"

"Let the Light So Shine"

"What You See Is What You Get"

"Just Layin' Back"

"Huh?"

"Come and Get It"

"This Is All I Got"

"Ahhhhhhhhh"

And I could go on, and on, and on.......  And on, believe me........

But HERE was Luci for most of the night tonight......

She's still recovering from the Thanksgiving chaos (previous blog).

Aren't we all.

And, I thought, while I was watching her tonight, that don't we girls ALL just want to do this from time to time???!!!

THANKSGIVING STORIES

We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year, and it was such a great day!

NEPHEW did the organization and the stressing.  He was much better at both than I would have been, and he was SO much fun to cook with.  And, wow, can he organize!

NEPHEW and I now know how to use a meat thermometer (and how to spot one when it's in the drawer.  A candy thermometer isn't the same thing.)!  It's really not as easy as you think it would be.  Apparently you need to know where to put the thermometer and how long to leave it there.  The three minute rule with a rectal thermometer doesn't apply here.  We seriously put the end of the thermometer in the the boiling potato water to see if the little red line was going to move at all.  It did.  So we put it back in the turkey.

We had eight people... me, HUSBAND, SON, DAUGHTER, NEPHEW, SONSLONGTIMEGIRLFRIENDWELOVEHER, SISTERFROMANOTHERMOTHER, and DAUGHTERSGREATFRIENDN.  And enough food for 750.  Everybody got to take home food for ten.

To explain further..... we had eight people, two spoiled, anxious cats, a small house, a small kitchen, and football playing on the never-to-be-turned-off-goddamnit-TV.  HUSBAND controlled the games and the remote control.  End of that.

SON built a wonderful fire in the backyard fire pit.  We remembered to put the screen on the fire pit when the cold front came through so the fire wouldn't spark something that would burn down the neighborhood.  Of course, we all had to discuss, at length, whether or not the wind was strong enough, and should the screen be put on the fire pit, and, oh, it was so pretty without the screen.  But then we saw a blazing branch blow out of the fire pit and across the yard, so we all said yep better put the screen on the fire pit.  End of that, also.  It burned beautifully the rest of the evening.

We had a little issue with slicing the turkey.  Turns out, nobody really wanted to do that.  And everybody claimed the I've-never-done-that-before defense.  HUSBAND just sat back and smiled. So SON and NEPHEW took it on and did a great job.  I've made note, however, that we don't need a carving knife next year.  Hands work just fine.

The food was wonderful and the conversation was even better.  We laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed.  All day.  Here are some more highlights:

-  We had the awkward moment when SOMEONE said should we say grace? Not sure who thought they should ask that?  I think I said well ok uhh sure really? Then DAUGHTER said oh we should all just say what we're thankful for.  And we all stared at her.  Then we did that.  And it turned out just fine.  Apparently, we all loved each other, and were thankful to be with each other, and we hoped to do it again next year, and we were so thankful for all the food, and does anybody need another drink.

-  I made the mistake of saying to everyone that SON and NEPHEW had done a great job of "BONING the turkey".  I heard somebody say did she just say "BONING the turkey?" and there was laughter (Beevis & Butthead went through my head).  Then I corrected my verb to de-boning.  Gotta laugh at that one.

- Then after somebody passed somebody the rolls and butter, there was some sort of comment, then SOMEBODY said "well don't ask me to butter your biscuit anymore!"  There was a pause, and then laughter.  Gotta laugh at that one too.

-  We had the last minute digging for dishes that were in the "don't-look-in-here" cabinets.  The cabinets where you use your foot to hold the stuff in so you can slam the door.  Ya'll may not have any of those.  All of mine are that way.

-  We did the appropriate amount of Sarah Palin bashing.  We talked about what we would do if she ever became president.  Turns out we would all move to another country.

-  We had the debate about whether they are yams or sweet potatoes.

-  We had the debate about cornbread dressing versus white bread dressing.

-  We trashed family members who weren't there.

-  I said "dark meat" too many times, apparently.

-  I'm sure I said will you grab me another beer too many times.  DAUGHTER started the drinking, however, by cracking open the Merlot at 1:00, so it was open season from then on.

-  Pancho managed to get outside (he's a pampered, indoor cat).  We don't know how long he was out there but somebody heard him at the back door.  DAUGHTER opened the door and he trotted his big self right back inside.  He looked at me, and I'm sure I heard him say holy shit mom it's cold out there.  He planted himself in the middle of the bed and stayed there for three hours.  Then, overnight, he threw up all the grass he ate while he was outside.  It looked pretty much just like it did before he ate it.

-  And I took great pictures.  Here's what most of them look like:

There are others just like these.  We did manage to get a few group photos. I told everyone there could be NO cigarettes/cigars-by-the-fire-break until we got some damn pictures. And thanks to DAUGHTERSGREATFRIENDN we got a few family pictures, too.  I promised not to post them online.  I didn't promise to send them as Christmas cards.

Daughter and I were talking late that night, and I asked her if she thought  DAUGHTERSGREATFRIENDN had a good time.  She said oh I think he did.  She said she had already told him that we were a strange family so he was prepared.  I said really?  We're strange?  She said well, yeah, but that's a good thing.

I thought a lot about that.  I guess if I had to choose between being described as "my family is so normal", and "my family's sort of strange", I'd choose strange.

It was a really great day!

LOVE THOSE MAMMOGRAMS!

I had my yearly MAMMO scheduled for this past March.  Turned out it was during Spring Break.  I cancelled it.

When I told my doctor a few weeks ago that, no, I hadn't had my yearly MAMMO,  she said, WHYTHEHELLNOT?

So, I scheduled the MAMMO immediately, feeling like I had failed my doctor's expectations of me.  That she would no longer want me for a patient if I couldn't follow her instructions.  She's been my doctor for 18 years, and she knows that I know I should have obeyed.

I was able to get an appointment quickly, and I showed up 5 hours early to make sure I made my doctor proud.

All went well, or so I thought.  I exposed myself as requested.  I didn't fuss or complain when the technician said I'm just going to flatten this baby a little bit more, you might feel a little discomfort.  And when I was told DON'T BREATHE.  I did NOT breathe.  Who would?

Then, five days later, I get the "call back", saying that there was "just a little something they needed to look at", and I was to go to another, super-duper, MAMMO place to have it done.  And I was to go THAT day, and they had already scheduled my appointment.  I think I just said, Huh?

DAUGHTER went with me, for fun, and in case they asked if I had an adult with me.  Yes I did.

"They", the super-duper MAMMO people, were very, very nice.  They talked in soft voices, said thank-you-so-much a lot, and told me what to take off and what to put on.  And they made sure that I knew how the little pink flowered cape was supposed to work (it opens in the front!). Then, I had another, different, sort of  MAMMO, in a dimly lit room.  Again, I was told to face this way, look this way, suck this in, flop this here, move this there, tilt your chin up, move your shoulder here, hold on to this, smile, and DON'T BREATHE.  Got it.

After that, I was escorted to a "holding pen" with light blue walls and Dr. Phil playing on the flat-screen.  Other women in my same state of amusement, stress, frustration were there.  And as my friend, B, pointed out, WHY is it that some women feel compelled to talk to everyone else in the little "holding pen".  Do we really have anything to say to each other at that point?  We're all naked under our little pink flowered capes.  We all have our clothes with us, waiting for "the word".

However, some women had put their clothes on hangers, I noticed.  I just wadded mine up in a ball and used them as a prop for my book.  Considering where I was, I wasn't too worried about wrinkles, plus they provided coverage for any little gaps in my little pink flowered cape.  A 700 year old woman sitting beside me reminded me that there were hangers available.  I just smiled and said thanks but I thought it was too late.

So after about six more hours, one of the soft-speaking people called me out of the "holding pen" and told me that, once again, "there was just a little something they needed to look at", and that someone would come get me soon for a sonogram.  Annnnndddddd, another soft-speaker, LIM came to get me, told me to grab my wadded up ball of clothes and follow her.  And I did.  She asked me how I was doing as we walked.  I said, oh just fine thanks.

This time, I got to lay down.  And I exposed myself again, only one breast this time.  LIM asked me if I was cold.  I said yes can I cover back up?  She thought that was really funny.  She squirted way too much ice-cold sonogram gel on my one exposed breast, said oops, and asked if it had gotten on my face.  Trying not to complain, I said oh that's ok, I'll just rub it in.

During, the fifteen minutes of her moving the magic wand around on my cold, now gooey, naked boob, she kept making "hum" sounds.  I finally asked LIM if something was going on.  She said well I need to get somebody else to help.  SERIOUSLY.  THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID.  So she opened the door and shouted into the hallway, HEY DEBRA, CAN YOU COME IN HERE AND LOOK AT THIS?

I assumed DEBRA was called in to look at some strange deformity or growth on my cold, exposed breast.  I wondered how I had missed it.  I finally asked LIM and DEBRA to fill me in please.  They thought that was funny too.  Debra, apparently, was called in to look at some computer glitch that had been causing problems all day.  LIM could have told me that ahead of time, don't you think?

I was eventually told that nothing was cause for IMMEDIATE concern and my doctor would receive the reports and contact me.  And I got the all-clear-go-ahead-and-get-dressed-in-your-wadded-up-wrinkled-clothes directive.

It was the strangest experience, and I've had a few strange experiences.  I was glad I had a broad, warped sense of humor.

So, sisters, get your MAMMO!  You might have just as much fun!

PICTURE DAY. . .

. . . and the female "comb-over"..............

I don't think I need to say more.

I found this in a box of old pictures tonight, and she's a family member.  The picture is from the 20's.  That's all I'm sayin'.

I really needed a laugh today.  And this provided the laugh!

Hope it does the same for you.

FUUUUNNNNN SATURDAY SHOPPING!

It was the most perfect day in Austin today.  No rain, no clouds, no wind, chilly night, PERFECT afternoon, with the high in the low 70's.  BEAUTIFUL weather.  And lots of entertaining events going on this weekend.

So while DAUGHTER and friends were at the FUN FUN FUN FEST on this perfect Austin day, I had my own fun.  Just let me tell you about it........

I spent THREE AND A HALF HOURS shopping for two things.

A new trash can for the kitchen.

And a new litter box for Pancho & Luci.

Does it get more fun than that?

And I spent three and a half hours because there are way too many options out there for both of these items.  I pretty much knew what I needed both things to do.  And I needed them to do it well!  WAY better than their predecessors.

Luci.....

.....has decided that she likes whatever we put in the kitchen trash can, and especially if it's mixed with coffee grounds.  I wish I had a picture.  HUSBAND usually cleans it up before I get there, trying to avoid yet more tears from me!  We don't have a cabinet that it fits in, so it has resided just fine in front of our dishwasher for a very long time.  It's foot-friendly when we need to scoot it over.  Luci has recently found the fun inside the can!

So here's what I got today.......

Ha!!!!  Get into THAT, Luci!  Sad thing is, I'm really not sure that she can't.  

And the litter box......

Well, Pancho, sweet Pancho......

...has decided that he no longer wants to go INTO the covered toilet, and that it's just easier to go on the rug right outside the door.  The rug is supposed to be for them to wipe their feet on!  I thought that was understood.  Really.

So here is what we had......

And here's what I took out a bank loan for today - the downtown, upgraded, high-end condo of litter boxes.

And I knocked out a wall this afternoon so it would fit where it needs to go!

I haven't yet put either one of these into operation.   I think I'll wait until tomorrow.
It was exhausting.  I'm glad I didn't need to shop for a new broom too.

BAD HALLOWEEN DECISIONS!

I like to celebrate Halloween these days enjoying that I no longer have to obsess and freak out about what we are all going to dress as.  So, in honor of Halloween weekend, I decided to post a "never before seen picture" of HUSBAND and me in one of our worst Halloween costume moments on record.  This was a "what the hell were we thinking" decision, clearly.  SON was 11 months old,  his first of many, many agonizing costume demands he would face.  He didn't care about this one, at least.

Here's the short story......  (there's a long version that I think included name-calling, door-slamming, screaming, the mention of divorce, etc, etc, etc.)  But, I'll stick to the short version.

We had close friends 30 years ago who had the wildest, most elaborate, drunken, costume parties imaginable.  You did NOT show up un-costumed.  You just didn't.  Prizes and awards were given for the BEST costumes.  Everyone tried to one-up each other. This was a big event.  The day after Halloween, we immediately began thinking about next year's costume.  Actually it was two days after Halloween when we started thinking about next year.  The day after was spent trying to remember what we said at the party, and if we did anything embarrassing, then calling people to apologize.  Luckily this particular year, 1983, HUSBAND and I had an 11 month old, so we had to be responsible.  At least I think we were.

So after weeks and weeks of debate, we decided we would go as CAVE PEOPLE, the little Cave Family.  Jeez.  I can't remember why we came up with that ideal, or why we thought it would be clever.  It was long before the caveman commercials on TV.

I made all three costumes - from scratch, all of them.  And we paid SON $100 and promised him a car to just keep it on for an hour or two (he hated pants and shoes at the time).  We gave him some rocks, too.  His favorite toy.

So here we are, fake teeth, fake hair, fake dirt, real rabbit pelts on our shoulders (sorry!).

(Check out the Harvest Gold stove in our kitchen!!)

Here we are at the party.  I don't think we were speaking to each other at the time this was taken, having just gone through the insane stress of getting dressed LIKE THIS!  We got over it.  SON is enjoying his rocks though, and he kept his costume on all night!

We ALMOST won The Best award.  Almost.  But see the dwarfs in the background?  A group of friends came as The Seven Dwarfs that year.  All seven of them.  They won.  They were impressive.  Damn them.

Other costumes from our years going to that party were Mimes, Santa and Frosty (I was Santa, and pregnant), a pregnant nun and devil (when I wasn't pregnant), the Sand People from Star Wars, Nuclear Patrol Agents (gas masks and all, in the days of the South Texas Nuclear Project), among others.  By the time DAUGHTER was born we decided a babysitter was the ticket for this party!  She didn't like pants or shoes either.

But this costume idea .......!  I haven't looked at these pictures since then, for obvious reasons.  HUSBAND loves the pictures.  Thinks they're hilarious.  Thinks we look great.  Then again, he looks better than I do.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

AMAZON LOVE & THE UPS MAN.....

That title sounds like a romance novel, doesn't it.  And there's probably already a porno movie with that title.  But here's MY story.......

Some dear friends gave me a very generous Amazon gift certificate for my birthday a few months ago.  I've just now taken advantage of the gift.  And let me tell you, I'm like a 5 year old waiting to open the big box!!

These friends gave me a condition..... it had to be spent on "just me".  So I've saved it, trying to decide what I wanted the "just me" gift to me. It's been a while since I bought a toy for "just me".

I carry around at least three books wherever HUSBAND and I have to visit.  I don't want to be in the position of being FORCED to read just one, and sometimes visits are longer than others!  So I have to be prepared!

So.... Here's what I did.....

I ordered a Kindle!!

A huge commitment for me, because I like my books!  I like the way they smell, and I like to dog-ear pages, highlight things, add sticky notes. (Oh, Sticky Notes, those are another thing that I LOVE! - another post though.)  But I did my research on the Kindle vs the Nook vs the TOO EXPENSIVE iPad.  Lots and lots of research.

Sooooo, trying to move on here...... Most people who know me know that I love the UPS Guy, whatever he looks like.  :-)
They just bring you good stuff!  Stuff you wanted.  And they don't bug you.  They just ring your doorbell and run away.  Love them.

And, OMG, I love Amazon!  They really need to get me to do PR for them!!  Ask anybody.  Since I'm a mall-o-phobic, I do almost all of my shopping online, AND on Amazon.  You have to love a company that, once you order something, gives you a button on your account page that says, "where's my stuff".  That's really all it took for me!

ANNNYYYYYWAY...... MY KINDLE has been traveling across the country (sort of like Flat Stanley).  From a place called "US" (hum! Not sure if that is "US" as in them, Amazon, or "US" as in U.S. - still funny), to Tempe, AZ, to El Paso, TX, to San Antonio, TX.  When I saw that it was in San Antonio on Friday afternoon, I thought about calling UPS and just saying hey guys I'll meet you half way, ok?  But then it was scanned as a departure before I had time to call, and it arrived IN AUSTIN at 10:20 LAST NIGHT!

Unfortunately, it's still sitting there - didn't get to me today - no departure scan for Saturday.  :-(  Amazon told me it would be Monday, but since I was watching it travel, I thought that if they hurried up just a little bit, it would get to me today.

Monday will be fine, though. I trust that Amazon and UPS did the very best they could.  I'm feeling a sore throat coming on so I might be home when it gets here.

AND, I ordered MY first KINDLE book today.  For $5.24.  I got an email from Amazon saying that, even though MY KINDLE hadn't yet arrived, the book was being "sent" to MY KINDLE.  While it sits and waits at the UPS warehouse in Austin.  How cool is that!  I'm pretty excited.

I'll give you a Kindle update soon, because I'm sure everyone really wants to know.

Thank you, my Amazon gift certificate friends!!

NOTHING NEW HERE RIGHT NOW

I haven't posted anything recently, because........
No extra time.
I'm busy.
I'm tired.
I don't sleep.
Laundry.
Luci.
Dishes.
I have to put gas in the car.
Food.
Answering emails.  :-)  (love you all!)
Trash.
Pancho.
Recycling.
Sifting the litter box.
Feeding the cats.
Feeding HUSBAND.  (just joking, HUSBAND!)
Showering.
Putting air in the tires.
Taking allergy meds.
Putting on makeup before work in the mornings (thinking about giving this one up!).
Pancho
Watering my THREE plants.
Sifting the litter box.
The Dishwasher.  (Not to be confused with "Dishes".)
Going to the mailbox.
Sorting through the mail.
Throwing out bad mail (doctor's bills!).

Trash.

Recycling.
Sifting the litter box.
Luci.
Changing a lightbulb.
Work.  (love work!)
Luci.
Luci.
Sifting the litter box.
Sleeping.
But here is where we live, so.... not so bad........

Nice place to be.

TWO FRIENDS

I found this picture tonight.  And the frame it was in is hysterical. I must have thought so when I bought it, because it fits these two perfectly.  I had forgotten about it.  I think this was from their middle school years.

They are both girls who "like to share their feelings".  Lovely & loving. Sweet. Independent. Hard-working. Sympathetic. Conscientious. Dedicated. Aware.  AWARE!  Never a question about how they feel about anything.  They will TELL YOU!  I love that about them both.  These two could always make you pay attention, believe me!!!!!

They first met at two or three, when their older siblings were in kindergarten - INSTANT friendship.  The two families became instant friends, as well.

Twenty-two years later, they are roommates, in a cute house in South Austin (with another sweet friend).  And they take care of each other.  I called a couple of nights ago.  DAUGHTER said she was playing Skip-Bo with FRIEND, and being silly. My stomach and my heart  flip/flopped.  Still the same friends.  So glad.

Nothing ever tops good friends.  Ever.

I promise to NOT be sappy anymore, for a while.