Weather

Believe it or not - One night last week,we had a rainstorm at 3AM. This is news worthy because we hadn't had any rain for 17 days. Everything was completely dried out. . . including the sand where Paul built our patio. Guess what though - it rained so hard, it didn't do that much good. But - before bedtime last night and in to the late evening, we had a steady rain. That helped. Paul took Gracie out before bedtime. He had a hard time finding an umbrella because we really hadn't needed one for a long time. When it rained, it rained in the middle of the night. He finally found an umbrella in my car across the street. Gracie was dripping wet and most unhappy. The weather forecast is for cloudy, overcast skies, and rain showers. Good. Hope it's during the night, though. Well, I've written another one-paragraph posting. Not my fault. Can I say - stupid computer? I had some lovely paragraphs. So - what's happenin' in your neck o' the woods?

Words Fail Me. . . my reason for improvement

It doesn't seem possible that the last time I wrote was March 14th. I guess there's just been things going on. My excuses are . . .other things: going to Curves, shopping, or etc, etc, etc.

Recently, I ordered a humorous book about writing titled "Words Fail Me" or as the cover says, "what everyone who writes should know about writing" It also said that the author, Patricia T. O'Connor, wrote the bestselling (?) "Woe is I" book. Her titles intrigued me. It arrived. I've been reading it; I've been trying to practice some of its lessons.

My birthday was a nice one. (Although I can't believe I'm that old! Don't ask.) I got flowers from Paul, and also from Nancy and her family. They were, and still are, beautiful - even several days later. Jil gave me an Amazon.com gift certificate, which I can use to order books for my kindle, and a huge, delicious, birthday cake.

My cousins, Carol and Alice, plus brother Bob, and son Jil all joined us at Ivy's Steak House for dinner. We came back here for Jil's cake and my decaf coffee We finished half of the cake. Then I divided the rest and gave Bob a large part of it to take home for my nephews. I must say, I do enjoy being with my family. There were many years in my young adult life, when my cousins and brother weren't living near me. . .and of course, more recently . . . Jil hadn't been around. I got some lovely e-mail cards - including one from Jil's wife, Epril, that I really treasured. She's still in the Philippines. I even got a phone call from Lue, and a card from her brother Scott who lives across country in Washington state.

Paul wanted to know what to get me for my birthday. All I had to do was mention what I wanted and he went out and got it it: a ceiling fan, with a light, for our bedroom to replace the 30-year fan that came with the house. Done. We now have a beautiful fan with light that works so much better than the old one.

Talk about being busy! - Paul replaced the ceiling fan, and then put in a new dishwasher yesterday. We picked it up at Jessup's warehouse. As the men were loading it into the back of the van , they said for him to call if he needed help installing it. (They don't know Paul . . . The Man Who Can Do Anything) It took him a while to get it up and running, but now it is. He's now presently working on a back-yard patio.

So - that's all the news from here. How're things goin' in your neck o' the woods?

Monday morning

We have a call in to my dear ole bugman Frank. He came, saw, but didn't conquer our ant problem. It had been raining before his last visit, and he couldn't find the ant's nest. Ant traps don't fix the problem, with these kind of ants because they die before they reach their nest. He said they'd come again and to call him immediately. He was right, so I called. Looking forward to his arrival asap.
They're out in full force.

Meanwhile, Debby, our cleaning lady, is here doing her thing. She's been cleaning for our family since 1980. She says she refuses to clean for the next (third) generation. . . The first couple of years when she cleaned for my mother, she'd bring her two young daughters. Before they'd come, Mom would "drop" a couple of coins on the rug for them to find.
When mom was in the hospital for the last time, (1993) the two girls wrote their names and taped coins to a sheet of paper for mom. A couple of years later when I was cleaning out a drawer, I found the paper and gave it back to Debby as a keepsake.

Beautiful weather here now. It's even on the cool side, so Paul's happy. It's perfect for the heated pool and hottub. If you sunbathe against the sun-warmed cement wall, it's quite nice. Paul's been busy making plans for a patio out back. We needed a permit, so I signed the papers. He and Graciewalked up to the Clubhouse Office this morning, and dropped them off.

We went to Carol O's house for a dinner party Friday night. Her sister and brother-in-law, Patti and Joe, are visiting from Rochester, NY. I can remember the days when I'd be here for winter recess. It was awful going back to bleak midwinter.

So - what's happenin' in your neck o' the woods? And I mean that. I hear from some of you pretty regularly, but others. . .

My dear ole friend Frank.

In the middle of the night, I was awakened by the wind rattling the bathroom window. I closed it. I don't remember ever having to do that down here. I awoke this morning to thunder, lighning and rain coming down in torrents. Would you believe it's the first time this year that I've seen such rain? It's calmed down a lot. But you can still see it in the puddles in the street.
We had a lake in the middle of our backyard last year. Okay. It was a pond. Sank into the soil early and didn't do any lasting damage. Gracie's paws got wet.

We've had an ant infestation. Luckily we have a "bug man." Frank, who comes and sprays on a regular basis, and comes at a moment's notice - to check out problems. The first thing he said was - They're still there even when it's raining? I checked. Yessir. We've even found their route. Coming and going. Touching feelers as they go by. Wonder what they say. Probably - good place to camp out for a while. He came earlier in the week, but they didn't show us a route.

Frank and I are on a first-name basis because a couple of years ago he located a prize-winning(my term) city (yes - that many) of carpenter ants in a cabinet in the kitchen that I never ever opened. (above the fridge - I never ever went there, and don't now. There's nothing in it. Paul opens the door occasionally to check on things and I exit the room hastily.) They had been there for years. And I'm not exaggerating. Probably since before my mother died in 1993. Frank took pictures and they were in the bug men's trade magazine. So my home was/is infamous. It was all cleaned out beautifully. I never saw the pictures, but I hope he took a before and after one. The ones now aren't the same kind of ants (they're little tiny ones) and are easily erradicated, says Frank. Good. Frank's due here any minute.

How're things goin' in your neck o' the woods?

Time is Rushing By . . .

Wednesday - it is. Actually it's Ash Wednesday - and I had a donut. Well . . .It's the time to give something up for Lent. I'll have to sit and consider this Christian calendar more seriously, I guess. Paul went to "Wednesday morning coffee with the men" at the Clubhouse early this morning and came back with this delicious donut for me. It was so very good.

It feels like I've just been vegetating here, the past couple of days. I finished the 1000 page paperback book, Sarum, that Jil recommended. I feel like I should have a prize. It was quite an undertaking - The monumental story of Salisbury, England from prehistoric times to 1985. Showtime was last weekend. Lots of free time!

Showtime was fun. It's always fun even when it's challenging. Cousin Carol was here for the Friday night performance. Paul, Jil and Bob showed up for the Saturday evening show. Paul and Bob stayed for the pizza party afterwards but Jil left during intermission to get home for work. I was glad he could be here for the first half.

As far as I'm concerned, Carol saw my better performance because on Saturday, I missed a whole page of music that got folded under - so I lost my place for a while. Panic City. The gals had to sing a capella. Now . . .I know Carol didn't come just for me. She has a lot of Circlewood friends. Everyone (including me) want to do his/her best. It was just disappointing.

An aside: I'm quite sure that Saturday's performance was the one recorded for posterity. I wish they could pick and choose. Oh, well. It is what it is. What's done is done. As we all know - we should learn from our mistakes. It won't happen again. Knock on wood. It's just another item on a pre-performance check list.

We're seriously windowshopping for a new dishwasher. My present one does a terrible (to put it mildly) job of cleaning. Jil does the dishes every night, and he even prefers to do them by hand. We've doubled our water consumption. We took Gracie to Lowe's and Home Depot. We keep a towel in the car, and place it in the "seat" of the cart and that's where she sits. So many people come up to her and want to pet her. We tell them that she can't control her licker. It's true. Some people don't approach -but smile at her. She is so cute. But then I'm prejudiced. Very.

"Little" Ida returned our phone call last night. She had been out when we first called her. We wanted to wish her a Happy Birthday. She's now 8 years old and she's almost as tall as I! That isn't saying much since I've become less than 5 feet (by a hair). I was 5'2" in my prime. Each year, when we get back from Florida, the grandchildren like to compare themselves to my height to see how much they've grown. Each year someone has grown taller. She's the only one left on Paul's side of the family that is/was smaller. Vincent and Evie will be shorter for a while. LOL as Vincent is going to be 5 at the end of April and Evie is less than 6 months.

Back to Ida. We sent her a Raggedy Ann doll, and the first book in the Raggedy Ann series, which will arrive either today or tomorrow. Luckily the doll arrived. She was quite excited. Bless her little heart. I have good memories of Raggedy Ann. I had quite a few Raggedy Ann books, and Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls as a child. Mother read them to us at lunchtime. (We came home for lunch.) And at bedtime. These books are at Nancy's for Vincent and Evie.

Paul is out walking Gracie around the mile circle. We have blue skies and a lot of puffy clouds. There's a steady wind. And it's almost lunchtime. Wonder what we'll have. They're back. He says it's kinda warm. Probably means the pool this afternoon.

So - what's happenin' in your neck o' the woods?

Eats Shoots and Leaves. Eats, shoots, and leaves

I just finished reading an article about grammar and it reminded me that I've become very lazy about how I write. When I think of how much time and effort my 7th and 8th grade language teachers put into my education, I sometimes cringe at what I do.

I've always got excuses:
It's been a long time since I studied it. We're used to it being wrong. I've forgotten how to tell that it's wrong.

I find that if I'm reminded, I can usually put a sentence together correctly. But now, I'm not even sure the words I've written above are as they should be. (I know I use phrases as sentences, with capitals at the beginning and periods at the end, because I've seen them in books and decided that if these authors can be excused to write that way, I can too. Such as starting sentences with the word "but" or "such as" and ending sentences with prepositions. And - Sometimes if I can't think of a word, I end up writing "around" it. Such as that thingy I'm typing on - oh, yes my keyboard)

For one Christmas someone requested a book on grammar. He got it. I've forgotten the title. I think I should probably look it up on Amazon.com for my own, and my dad's (if he's looking down on me) peace of mind. Dad insisted on correct language - especially at the dinner table. Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. That's the title. Or something like that. Forgive my sentence fragments there. There's something about the title and commas that change the meaning.

Guess I'll order that book through Amazon.
Wow. I've written one subject - one blog. Wow.

So - what's happenin' in your neck o' the woods?

Well, for goodness sakes . . .

I had all such good intentions of going to Curves this morning - the first time in over a week - due to rehearsals for Showtime - but (how soon I forget) I was all set to go - and remembered that they had Zoomba. (a latin dance with many strenuous moves. . . I could go and do it, but. . .so what. ) My 3 loads of wash were under control, I had time to go and get back before lunch. Oh well, Curves' loss is your gain - cause I have time to write instead. Lucky you.

Yesterday morning I invited Carol O and her friend Pam for dinner, which set in place a series of activities - First, we didn't have anything that was appealing for lunch, I invited Paul to lunch at Panera Bread - which he paid for - the dear. Second, I had to go food shopping for last night's menu. Publix is right next door to Panera Bread. Very convenient. I decided to make manicotti. I haven't made that in a couple of years and it sounded good to me. After lunch, we got a box at Publix, checked the ingredients list, planning on 6 people. (Brother Bob, Jil also) and doubled the recipe. Bought all the ingredients. Two pans worth. Knowing I had Showtime rehearsal at 2:15, and we had about an hour - I cooked the ground beef and sausage ahead of time. Good thing.

When I got to the Clubhouse, it was packed with performers. . .they were going to go through the whole show. Uh Oh. Since I accompanied the opening number, plus three others, plus the finale - I was destined to stay the whole time. Luckily I had my phone with me. When we hadn't gotten through the first half and it was 3:30 - I knew I was in trouble.

I called Carol and told her to be at our house at 6:00 rather than 5:00. Incidentally, Carol would have been there for practice except she had some things to do with Pam that they hadn't had time for. I was so glad she wasn't there - I would have felt awful for her having to be there for so long, and having company (Pam) to attend to.

I called Paul and he immediately set out to fixing the whole thing. I came home at 4:40 - very glad to have that extra hour. Well - my dear one - completed all the work! There were two batches of manicotti - sitting there, waiting to be cooked. Jil made a fabulous salad, and defrosted some shrimp for shrimp cocktail. Carol and Pam arrived at the appointed hour. Bob was there too. Everyone seemed to have a good time. And, of course, we made too much manicotti. We sent some back with Bob for his sons, and have some more for dinner Thursday night before I go to the 6:00 dress rehearsal. It all worked out well!

Showtime is sold out. It always is. The Saturday before, people have to get to the clubhouse an hour and a half early in order to get tickets. Now - we aren't very good. But. . .Everyone seems to want to come and support us. Some are talented. Some aren't. But everyone has so much fun trying their best. And all the participants show such enthusiasm for whoever is performing, it makes it worthwhile. There was a woman, Ginger, whom I didn't know. She sat next to me and was participating for the first time in Showtime. She was in one of the two-minute skits. She told me confidentially she was scared to death. She did fine, though. Said all her lines.
Perfectly.

So - you can see what I've been up to, and will be involved in, til Sunday. It's almost lunchtime and I have to check out the fridge to see what's there for lunch.

What's happenin' in your neck o' the woods?