Punctuation saves lives!

Public Service Announcement - Newsflash…

Not only do you have to watch your prepositions, you need to be careful about commas.

The comma you place, or NOT, just may save a life.

Be careful, peeps!

Grandma is safe.  My job is done for today. 

Great escape

 

Not again!  Another snake adventure, dang it. 

Missy brought a (the same?) snake back into the house yesterday, but I saw her with it just inside the kitty door, which is in the sunroom and has a French door that closes it off from the living room.  That door got closed while I went for the trusty dustpan and swept him into it and set the pan on the outside railing. 

The good blogger needed to run get her phone (normally in my pocket) to snap a photo, right?  It was on the kitchen counter, and by the time I grabbed it and ran back out to the deck, the little slithery sucker was trying to make his great escape.

I simply dumped him over the side, figuring the 6-8’ drop was still better than being toted around with Missy’s sharp teeth.

Hmm, I should have kept count of how many snakes I have rescued this summer.  I know these guys are harmless, but I would love a little less excitement, thankyouverymuch.

Life is never dull in paradise, y’all!

Two kitties and a snake

 

Missy is setting a very bad example for her brother, who hasn’t been allowed outside yet.  He needs to learn his way around inside, before he ventures outside.  That is my plan.  She can introduce the kitty door to him soon.  Maybe.  Or maybe I’ll just close it!

So what did I find when I got home from The Walmarts yesterday? 

Both kitties were chasing this poor little guy around the rug in the living room.  I obviously didn’t want the snake in the house, much less in the toy basket where they had him cornered (that is a Mardi Gras necklace that the snake is heading toward…I don’t think he was interested in bling, however).

Sigh.

I am finding the dustpan and brush combination is used more for trapping snakes than for actually their intended purpose of sweeping up loose dirt/crumbs.

Whatever it takes to get unwanted critters out of the house!

Missy doesn’t need to teach Casey her hunting skills.  They are not appreciated by Mom!

Tuesday. Again?

 

Boy howdy, September is slip sliding away.  Our leaves know that October is just around the corner.  We always wonder at this time every year whether we will have a good fall color show or not.  Too dry, too hot…how will it affect our leaf season?  Our tourists expect a beautiful showing each October.  We’ll see.  I am not a good predictor, but we do have color popping out.

More reading than beading going on around here.   Joan lost an earring to this set, and asked if I could take apart this necklace and make a new earring.  I tried to find the right size hematite cylinder to simply make one earring.  Nada.  Couldn’t find the right size anywhere, so I robbed part of the necklace and “fudged” a bit with some smaller pieces on the earrings.  No one will notice, so don’t tell. 

I also have a necklace repair job for Amy up next.  If I quit playing with my new baby.  Hey, I’m just trying to make Casey secure in his new home!  That’s what a good mommie does!!!

So I need to go to The Walmart this morning, long over due.  I was punkish and stayed home all this weekend, so my list has grown very long of needed stuff.  I’m on that.

Life is good, y’all!

Adjustment period

The two kitties are doing an awful lot of staring.  And sniffing.

Who has been sitting next to my bowl?  Did HE eat any of my food?  I am not sure this sharing is a whole lot of fun, thinks Miss Missy.

She is also thinking let me outta here for a break from this nuisance!  And so I did.  And then Mister Casey Kitty sat looking out the door, wondering why he couldn’t also go out.  Not yet, baby boy.

Bugger, he says.  Then he climbed up the stairs and perched on a shelf under my craft table…his favorite daytime hidey hole.  Nighttime finds him alternating between our bed and the cedar chest at the end of it.

It is an adjustment time for all of us, but his kitty hugs are so worth it.  I am sure Missy will get one some day.

Purr.  Another day in paradise.  The end.

Rut roh…

Haley and I are learning to play the online word game, you know, with friends.  I mean, sure I played the actual board game a bazillion years ago, but it doesn’t play the same way online.  It is easier, once you figure out it is drag and drop.  Duh.  Brian beat me twice (by default), since I didn’t know how to get the tiles up on the board.  I kept looking for a button to push.

The program won’t let you play wrong words either.  How cool is that?!  There is no danger that MM will wanna play.  He can’t spell for squat, bless his heart, but he sure can fix most anything that is broken.

Haley and I actually had two games going at once this morning…hence the late post.  My bad.  She won/I won.

Oops, she just gave me a ‘prod’ that she played (and that was her new word).  Gotta go figure out what to do with some doozies – Q, Y, I, J, L.  Oy…something else to do that is more fun than cleaning house!

Happy Sunday…I have to move QuIckLY!  I Just might get Lucky and find someplace these words fit!

New guy?

 

Wait a minute!  WHO is that? and WHO invited him here???  Not me!  Life is going just fine, thankyouverymuch.  I’m Princess.  I rule!  He stinks.  Period.  Go away!

Well, come down and meet him, my dear.  Here is your new brother.  He does NOT stink at all.  No, he is quite the lover boy.  You’ll like him.

Meet, um, well, with his former parents this guy was named Shadow.  Very appropriate name, I am finding out, because that is what he IS.  My shadow…he follows me everywhere, jumps into my lap—that part is nice!…but we already have a granddog by that name, so I am trying out Casey to see how that moniker wears.  Dick and I both need to get to know him, as does Miss Missy, so we’ll see if he is a Casey kitty or not.  Smokey?  No, I don’t like that…too common.  Shannon?  Too girly.  Hmm…

There were equal hiss greetings when these two finally did get a little closer to each other yesterday, but I suppose they were just establishing some ground rules for co-habitation.  They were both quiet as they claimed turf in bed with the two of us during the night, so that is a good beginning.  I think.

Some friends of ours are having health issues and need to actually find homes for 4 kitties.  Joy (who is allergic to cats) has spent a lot of time around all the kitties, and had recommended this particular guy as the ‘pick’ of the litter.  She is right.  He is a sweetie, and Joy will still get to see him, here at our house.  We think  Missy will get the new guy trained to her way of liking, after all, he is only a little over a year old, so he still needs a little guidance from an older female!  She just turned 5, so she has lots of wisdom to share.

Missy rules!

Friday funny…

 

A man suffered a serious heart attack while shopping in a store. The store clerks called 911 when they saw him collapse to the floor.  The paramedics rushed the man to the nearest hospital where he had emergency open heart bypass surgery.

He awakened from the surgery to find himself in the care of nuns at the Catholic Hospital he was taken to. A nun was seated next to his bed holding a clip board loaded with several forms, and a pen.  She asked him how he was going to pay for his treatment.

"Do you have health insurance?" she asked.

He replied in a raspy voice, "No health insurance."

The nun asked, "Do you have money in the bank?"

He replied, "No money in the bank."

"Do you have a relative who could help you with the payments?" asked the irritated nun.

He said, "I only have a spinster sister, and she is a nun."

The nun became agitated and announced loudly, "Nuns are not spinsters!  Nuns are married to God."

The patient replied, "Perfect.  Send the bill to my brother-in-law."

Have a drama-free, healthy Friday.  Love from the overcast GA Alps, y’all!

Entertaining wee boys

Two boys have to earn the right to play with Grammie's electronics this morning. Amy is off to the canning plant, making apple filling this time, instead of applesauce. Yum. She shares. I work cheap. And for hugs.

I think we all need a bowl of applesauce as we listen to the sweet rain falling outside. And maybe watch some Mickey Mouse. Sounds like a fine plan. Doodlebug just told me that he doesn't like the "funder". Yes, funder is loud. And sometimes scary.

Life is good, y'all! And never dull with wee boys.

Wednesday stuff

Dick woke up at 5 and headed to the kitchen to turn on the coffee pot.  I couldn’t go back to sleep.  Bugger.


I decided since I hadn’t posted a blog for today, I might as well roll out of bed and try to get creative.

So far it isn’t working.

Here we three are…in the office—the two humans typing away on computers…and Missy snoozing in her cozy bed.  She is the only smart one in the family.  I just told Dick that we are at the stage of our lives when we can finally sleep in, and now we can’t!  Bugger.  Of course we are also now at the stage where we can’t stay up till midnight any more, so our days are just getting shifted around.

So my friend Lois asked about the coolest thing that we had for sale at the fare.  I had to really think on that one, and I decided it was the item that garnered the most income and I.should.have.taken.a.photo.of.it:  a koi pond table!

It was a big sucker—a large, beautiful Chinese pot sitting on a wooden stand, with a round glass topper on it.  Not my cup of tea (which is why I didn’t even think to take a photo), but it was in the silent auction and fetched $400!

My practical self looked at that and wondered how on earth you feed any koi swimming down there under heavy glass, much less even consider cleaning it out.  Sheesh.  Even if I liked Chinese stuff.  No.thank.you.

And the tackiest item?  Well, there were PLENTY of those (worn out golf bags, tired seasonal decorations, etc.), so it is hard to say what would have won in that category.  There were plenty of candidates, but nothing that jumps out as being memorable.

At least my beading contributions to the silent auction didn’t fall into the tacky category, as they all sold well.

A never-used home sauna unit that was originally purchased for supposedly $12K only got a single $100 bid.  It was basically a beefed up white shower stall/tub combo.  MM had his eye on it early on, but I pointed out that we had NOWHERE to put it, even if it wound up being a BAHgain!  Like he needs another project!

The vestry will decide just how the money is used for capital improvement to our building.  A new roof is in our eventual future…and we need to work toward adding an elevator…cha-ching.  Big bucks for that one, but very much needed with our aging congregation.

That’s it from a still-dark paradise, but I know it will be a lovely day today.  We are expecting more rain, and we NEED it.

BTW, go over and visit Lois today.  It is her BIRTHDAY!

Enjoy life.  Today is all we have, y’all!

Cha-ching

The fare netted the church capital fund just under $4,000!  That’s not too shabby for our small town…and certainly makes for big smiles from our treasurer.  And we had many attendees say what a friendly bunch of folks the workers were.  We sure are!

Dick and Jason spent yesterday mowing and cutting down dead trees and doing all sorts of outdoor manly work, ahead of today’s expected rain.  Hopefully we have a prospective buyer for the newly cleaned-up piece of property.  That would be good. 

Unfortunately I had a headache yesterday, so my day was not very productive.  Today it is paperwork duty, cleaning off my desk…my preference over running a chain saw any day!

Life isn't about how you survived the storm...
it's about how you danced in the rain!
So Dance!

That’s it from Mayberry.  Share a smile or two today!

Richardson squared

What a special treat we had at church yesterday.  Dr. Vernal Richardson (retired violinist from ASO) and his son Ernest (viola) enhanced our choir with their combined musical talent.
Ernest began his conducting career with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, and is now going into his 18th year with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra (among many, many other credits!), and he was here in Mayberry!  What a blessing!!!
This is a short clip of the piece played after the service, with permission granted to record…

And.......Ernest helped MM and the guys help dismantle the BIG tent!  What a nice guy!  Yikes...I nearly died when I walked outside and saw his hands on all those pipes (one of them nicked Dick's during the installation).  I warned Ernest to step away from that danger, but he laughed and said it was OK and just kept on working.  Talented and nice.  That rocks!

More ways to a better life…

 

You don't have to win every argument.  Agree to disagree.
Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
Don't compare your life to others.  You have no idea what their journey is all about.
No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
Frame every so-called disaster with these words:  'In five years, will this matter?'
Forgive everyone for everything.

Ouch.  That last one is sometimes a very difficult one.

Have a restful Sunday, y’all!

Going, going...

Lotsa stuff sold already. Weather is cool and cooperating. Hmm, 2:00 is still a long way off! I scored some nice cheep pearls. Love it!

Have a great Saturday, y'all!

Yesterday’s fun

Borrow a smaller tent!

This 20x20 was a bear to put together, since the pieces weren’t marked.  The guys worked hard…and MM wound up with a bloody finger, poor baby.  Thanks, guys!

We got this big boy, a 10x18, and two smaller tents put together in just over 2 hours…and D fer done!  There is much space for STUFF under them so that everything will stay dry in case of rain, plus the parish hall is loaded with STUFF.  We hope to raise $3,000.  Come help!

Church members get a preview tonight, then the sale begins tomorrow at 8 for the public.  That means that the workers have to be there early—what?  I don’t do mornings!!!!!!!  Something is wrong with that picture!  I will be there till it is over at 2…and stay till it is all cleaned up.  Let’s hear a collective awww.

Guess who will need a back rub?!  And wine…

Lake visitor and other stuff

 

In addition to deer, dogs, turkeys and the occasional fox, we have a variety of water loving visitors here in our cove.  This daddy long legs doesn’t usually come so close to the house, preferring to stay away from the humans on his fishing expeditions.  I happened to look out the French doors and saw him sitting checking out the nearby breakfast buffet yesterday morning, so I grabbed my camera and zoomed in through the window.  He was intent on food, so he didn’t see me this time and fly away like he normally does.  These guys are sooo graceful.

So it is Thursday in Fare week.  MM picked up two tents yesterday for me; this morning we pick up two more…and then the fun begins.  I mean WORK.  The tent installation party begins at 1p, so feel free to stop the church by and assist!  Hopefully we have some strong men available.  At least the weather is cooling down, just in time for the tent party.  I special ordered that for my workers!

Have a fabulous day.  Life is good, y’all!

Our resident pole dancer…

 

But hers was NOT the loud growl/roar that woke us up out of a sound sleep at the awful hour of 5:15!  MM jumped out of bed, instructing me to find Missy while he opened the door to the deck and bravely walked outside.

Missy was cautiously curious, found looking out a window herself.  MM saw something fat moving off the deck.  Raccoon, maybe?  Do they give a kitty roar?  I don’t know about that.  And I didn’t see the critter.  It was still DARK.  So guess which one of us was able to get back to sleep?  Oy…it will be a LONG day, but since I didn’t get a post up last night, here I sit at the computer, with coffee and the morning news in the background.

Missy brought in another ‘friend’ into the house yesterday…a baby snake that I rescued (in an empty shoe box, brave me) and dumped outside…to hopefully learn to be quicker than our girl.  Or not.

Life is never dull, living so close to the forest.  But we did get treated to the beautiful sight of four deer running across our front yard a couple of days ago, just above where that ugly old propane tank used to sit.

Has Mother Nature given you a treat lately?  If not, look for one.  It’s there.

Animal rescue help

 

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting  enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of  getting FREE FOOD donated every day to abused and neglected animals.  It takes less than a minute (about 15 seconds) to go to their site  and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals for free'. This  doesn't cost you a thing. 
Their corporate  sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food  to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! Please pass it along to people you know. 
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

Our Missy is a rescue kitty, so she sends her appreciation for your clicks (Barkley wasn’t, but he likes posing…he is our granddog).

Thank you.  Thank you very much.  Meow…woof!

Monday stuff…again

 

So the weekend was all about getting together with our moho club friends, eating (boy did we!), and seeing a little bit of the local area.  Oh, we were parked next to a nice creek.  Have I ever mentioned that we like being on or near water?  Oh.  Never mind.

Anyway, the four mousketeers (MM, Dan, Joan, moi) checked out a different campground where we might be going fairly soon…taking along 4 wheelers.  Yeah baby, senior citizens still like to play!

But no play today…the usual…laundry, hair cut, doc appointment…followed by a meeting where I’ve been asked to take minutes.  And in between all this, helping organize/price items at church for the fare that happens Saturday.  Busy week ahead, ppl!

Hope you have a marvelous Monday.  Life is good in Mayberry, y’all!

Never forget

Please stop a moment and give thanks for our country, those who fought on that fateful day, for those who died, and for the family and friends left behind. God bless the USA! Hugs to my family and friend everywhere.

Breakfast over

Time to begin the club meeting after enjoying good breakfast casseroles. Yummy.

Good people. Cool here in North Carolina.

Life is good, y'all!

Aircraft slams into 4 buildings…

Disaster:

Amazing photo shows great detail.  The pilot at low level had no control over his aircraft. It narrowly misses a crowd gathered for the air show, and slams into four buildings.  

One can only imagine the horror of the occupants inside those buildings.

 

It probably scared the sh*t out of them!

Hat tip:  Karen S.

So MM and I are busy loading up Missy in the moho and heading away for the weekend with our camping club.  Dan and Joan are joining us, so it is guaranteed to be a fun weekend…and we don’t even have to travel very far away, and we don’t have to cook a thing…just have a good time.

Check.  We can do that.

Have a great weekend, y’all!

Goodbye, tank!

MM and Jason are wonderful!!!  May the old tank be happy at its new home with Nana Joyce.

Progress!  Woohoo!!!

Life is good in Mayberry, y'all!

A loving conversation

A woman was sipping on a glass of wine while sitting on the patio with her husband.

She says, "I love you so much.  I don't know how I could ever live without you."

Her husband asks, "Is that you, or the wine talking?"

She replies, "It's me...talking to the wine."

And this is a new-to-us wine that MM and I recently discovered.  Nice.

Do you have a favorite wine? 

Hot Labor Day party!

No good party is complete without the cops arriving, right? Yes, it happened to us last night...truly a first.

Ansley came running downstairs to tell us...oh no, Will dialed 911 on Grammie's phone! He is 3, just so you know. The older kids heard the dispatcher's request, asking for the nature of the emergency. They promptly hung up the phone, scared to death, and fortunately reported the mishap to us grown-ups. Amy called back to tell the call center about the mistake, but of course they HAVE to send out an officer to confirm. Sigh.

The officer couldn't find our house, according to the dispatcher who had to call and ask me to be on the lookout for the officer. Dick jumped on the Chuck Wagon to go look for him...he was next door at Amy's house. I am glad it was a false alarm and that for the real deal, they now know where we live. And he was very nice to Will, the wee perp.

So that excitement capped off our shopping day, which was fairly successful except for our intended purpose to find some small yellow craft roses. We still had fun, despite the rain..sweet rain! And ended up with a memorable evening...and good food.

Life is never dull in Mayberry, y'all!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Labor Day

Going shopping with girlfriends on a mission. A cook out here will happen later today. In the rain. Oh well, we need the rain something awful. Later...WYWH!

Saturday’s project

First, kill the copperhead that was in a pile by the clubhouse!  Jason earned hero status.

After that bit of fun, he proceeded to get the board bolted to one tree for a swing set, assisted by Amy and me…and the Bobcat (it makes a great scaffold):

Then, it was bolted to the other tree…after making sure it was level first:

Next was a trip back to town for Jason to get a different size hook…install the swings…and have two happy boys:

Even Amy had to try out a swing…

The boys know it is important to share, especially with mom!  And Grammie…

Just another day in paradise, y’all!

Here I sit…

That’s me this morning.  I was awake by 6a and couldn’t get back to sleep.  We had some friends over last night and I never made it back to the computer to get a post done.

 

So that is me.  With my coffee.  Uninspired.  It’s gonna be one of those days today.  Naw…that was yesterday!  Today will be GOOD.

I had a leak under the kitchen sink.  I opened the door to get out the dishwasher detergent to start the dishwasher, and picked up a box that was soaked.  That’s a very bad sign.  Oy…and Dick had just left, naturally.  I pulled out the brown paper bags (they make a good sponge for soaking up the water), sopped up the remaining small puddle (fresh leak, thankyouverymuch), placed a plastic tub under the pipe, turned on the overhead fan to help dry it all out, and waited for marvelous MM to get back home and be my hero.  And bring me a new box of dishwasher stuff.

Somehow or other the pipe fittings had wiggled lose, so MMM was able to tighten this and that, and then we once again had clean dishes.  And I could get dinner prepared for the expected friends. 

Leaks don’t happen on an ordinary day when nothing is going on.  Murphy’s Law at play, right?

Always remember to shut off the main water valve when you leave home for any length of time.  Stuff happens!

You’ve been warned, my friends!

Read the labels!!!

As I was conditioning my hair in the shower this morning, I took time to read my shampoo bottle.  I am in shock!  The shampoo I use in the shower
that runs down my entire body says, "for extra volume and body"!

Seriously, why have I not noticed this before?  Now I understand why I am so "full-figured"!

Tomorrow I am going to start using "Dawn" dish soap. It says right on the label, "dissolves fat that is otherwise difficult to remove."

It pays to read the warning labels, my friends!

Don’t be misled!!!

Alcohol abuse lecture

An elderly man is stopped by the police around 1 a. m. and is asked where he is going at this time of night.

The man replies, "I am going to a lecture about alcohol abuse and the effects it has on the human body."

The officer then asks, "Really? Who is giving that lecture at this time of night?"

The man replies, "That would be my wife."

Oh yes!  But, of course, that would NEVER be MM in that particular pickle.  No sirree.

So our lunch yesterday with old friends was mighty fine.  I did get a little bead sorting done and a bracelet remade.  I didn’t like the clasp on it, so I just took it apart and replaced the offensive pieces.  Easy peasy.

Hello, September!  Who has big plans for Labor Day weekend?  This is the last hoorah for summer.  Go out and enjoy it!  We sure will.