Good morning girls, or maybe night, depending on your perspective. I fell asleep around 8 watching Spike TV, an old episode of CSI Las Vegas, and had to get up to go to the bathroom a few minutes ago and my adenoids are a little swollen so I decided to just get up for awhile since I feel awake. Boy, it was beautiful here today. It got up to 80 and the sun was shining and just lovely. We had the guy from Jack's work here this afternoon to check our AC system and he said we were almost out of freon so he charged the system back up so now it is all comfy for my sister to come.

I talked to her yesterday and she is all raring to go. She even took a couple extra days at this end so she would be prepared to make the long drive. She is not casino savvy so told me I would have to help her. I kind of laughed and told her no problem. She seemed all excited about the show we are going to.

Jean: How awful about the accident. Does that mean the person was killed (that they were "covered up")? The people drive through here like their bums are on fire too. They have their crummy music cranked all the way up and makes my condo shake! The only time it gets to me is if they do it at night, but most of the time, it isn't too bad.

I guess they are finished with the negotations as far as vacation time is concerned with the city employees. They are going to take back the two floating personal days they gave them and give them Presidents' Day and Veterans' Day off instead. Has something to do with the firefighters being on call 24-7 and a lot of time losing those two days because they can't take them off because of covering overtime (we don't have enough firefighters to cover shifts here so a lot of them have a bazillion hours of overtime) Now tell me THAT makes sense. It is ALL about benefits of course. It is cheaper to pay huge overtime $$$ than to hire more firefighters and have to pay benefits to them. Now they are starting on money so that will be interesting. They don't want to give pay raises for awhile, though they have no problem giving them to themselves and the scummy mayor.

Oh, I am going to be gone until Tuesday, but probably won't get back in here until Wednesday. Keep the fires burning!

Have a great day and a great weekend!

Faye

Morning gals! Just a quick peek in while everyone is still snoozing. We will soon have to get up and going and get breakfast and such out of the way, but we didn't go to bed until midnight old time so I only have had about 3 hours sleep. I think I am going to get a blanket and sack out in the recliner for an hour or so until my sister wakes up.

Her trip went smooth and she showed up here before dark so that was good. My dd called yesterday afternoon and wanted to go out to dinner with us and even her husband joined us for BBQ. We had a great time then they came to our house and sat out on the deck and talked while T and I played games indoors.

I gave Thomas $20 at the restaurant for his good report card and his Great Aunt Birty gave him another $20. A little while later he came up and hugged me and said thank you again for his money and I told him that Nonny would give him whatever he wanted. So he tells me he now has $45 and he has a game he wants to get that is $49.95. So, I antied up another $10 to him but his mom told him he couldn't buy this particular game because it wasn't worth that much money. So, I told him to go to the game store and get two used ones instead that he would like to have. He was such a good boy at dinner and then at our house. I forget he can read now and he shocked me when he was reading me the rules. We played 5 games of dominoes (he dropped one on the floor and it jiggled his little desk we were playing at which caused my dominoes to fall side up so he could see them. He got such a kick out of the fact he knew what not to play then of course kept accidently hitting the table! ) We played Thomas's rules checkers (black on black squares white on white and he could move sideways!) He told me he was the checker king and his aunt, my son's in law sister was checker queen. He wanted to play tiddly winks, but couldn't get the hang of it so we played drop the tiddly in the point dish instead and you got whatever pts the tiddly landed in. First one to 500 won and of course, he beat the pants off me!

Well, everyone have a grea weekend. We are headed down to the casinos in just a few hours for the show.

Faye

Good morning ladies! Well, my sister goes home this morning and can't say I am unhappy. She has griped and complained and whined etc the whole time. She spent too much money at the slot machines (but everytime I would suggest we leave she refused) she didn't like the way Jack drove (he says she doesn't have the guts to say that to him) she couldn't smoke in my house (this woman smoked 4 pack a day while she was here and has precursor to emphysema and refuses to quit) she hated the food at the buffets, she is severely diabetic, didn't bring meds or her testing supplies and drank sweet tea and soft drinks, ate pastries and donuts and sat and ate candy I had in a jar until it was gone even though I bought a bunch of sugar free stuff for her so she wouldn't feel deprived. You would sit and be talking to her and she would sit and fall asleep while you talked. I bet that happened a dozen times. I dreaded her coming because I knew she would be like this but I really hoped she would have changed but she hasn't. I have to go and get her up in a minute but to tell the truth, I let her sleep so she had just enough time to bath and pack because I am fed up and afraid I will tell her off.

The bottle in the cork was the fact that my other sister is having a SERIOUS family crisis and confided in me the day before my sister got here. She had made the mistake of asking this other sister's son to borrow money for this particular thing and he told his mom even though she asked him not to. She begged me not to say anything to anyone (though she does know that I tell Jack everything) Anyway, this sister that is staying with me third degreed me all weekend about my other sister's family and I just gave her general stuff. Well yesterday, I got an email from the sister in crisis and she told me to go ahead and tell her as she would find out anyway so I did. The older sister said "Well, why do you think I was asking you so many ???? about her family?" She wanted to know if I knew and also if I was willing to spill the beans. She is now P*&&^% off because I didn't tell her. I got in her face and told her that my younger sister told me in confidence and I had no right to pass it on, it was her responsibility to do so when she felt the time was right! So she is now miffed, but I could care less. She is a horrible gossip and I am sure it is all over the family before she even left on Saturday.

Thanks for listening ladies. I need to go before she gets up and sees this as she complained that I spend too much time at the computer! lol

Faye

Good morning everyone! I too got a letter from Maggie with the same news. If she is smart, she types it up once and then mass mails!

I haven't heard from her, so I hope my sister returned home ok. She is so careless about her health and she has a sleep issue and didn't bring her oxygen, her c-pap (some kind of breathing contraption) her blood testing supplies, nada. She left my home to drive 10 hours saying she was tired! The woman FALLS ASLEEP at the wheel and once almost drove into the river! I tried to get her to let me come back with her and drive but she wouldn't. Ah, well, what can you do? The good news is my other sister's crisis is not gone, but has major changes they can deal with so I am happy about that. I sent them $300 to help with the cost of anything they need concerning what is happening, but I know it is probably a drop in the bucket. I can only hope it is useful to them in some way. She wanted me to fly out there, but I just can't afford that. The cheapest I found was $600 and that doesn't count the money I would need while I was out there etc. Her adult children need to step up and be there for her while her husband is away dealing with the child that is in trouble, but they have been pretty selfish with their mom about it.

I am dragging Jack to the commissary this weekend after soccer practice so I know I will be able to get into the gate to get my ID back. Luckily, I only have a small shopping list as we ate out the whole time my sister was here except for breakfast on Sunday morning. He told me he was going to offer anyway. He is such a good guy as I know he would rather have a tooth pulled than go shopping!

I guess I better get on the stick. I am kind of dragging this morning. I took some sleeping pills to try and get some rest and they haven't worn off this morning yet. I would have slept in except mr short legs wouldn't jump up on the bed this morning and just sat on the floor whining.

Have a good day everybody!

Faye

Good morning ladies! It is humid this morning and already in the 70's so I suppose it will be really warm today. Looks like rain too.

Jean: My sister called and said she got home around 10:30 PM on Wed night. She did have someone with her, but she refused to let them drive. I don't know why she bothered to try and hunt someone up to come with her if she wasn't going to have them help with driving and expenses, but who knows? I am like you about Walmart. I almost feel dirty when I leave that store as they are all so nasty. I have yet to go into one that isn't trashy and that is even in the nice parts of town. I got smart and bought T's stuff online this year. I have a birthday and two anniversarys all at the same time so I bought my sister's bday gift at HSN and shipped it direct, our friends got an Olive Garden gift card, which I had shipped direct, a gift basket for my son and dil online for their anniversary and found this cute basket (see below with description of stuff in it) for Easter for my grandson. I also bought him this neat book kit where he writes the story and illustrates it then you send it in and they type it up and bind it and he has a hardbound book he wrote. I also bought some Dr Dreadlful's Freaky Food Booster Pack , Gruesome Gooey Creatures, Monster Skin and Bubbling Brains. He gets 4 Easter baskets so I try to make mine nonedible for the most part. I imagine you spend on your 4 grandbabies what I spend on this one! My sister had a fit about how much I spend on gifts for people every year. But hey, I only have one grandson so I can spend more. If my son would get on the stick I might have more to spread it around! We are also having a scavenger egg hunt instead of regular dyed chicken egg hunt, which he does at the other grandma's. I am bragging, but I wrote all the clues myself and I think they are pretty darn good. I had to try and make the language simple enough for him to be able to read and the clues easy enough for a 6 year old. We give him the first clue then the rest are on the eggs as he finds them and the eggs are either candy type or plastic filled with toys etc instead of chicken eggs. The last clue leads him to his basket. I include my clues for anyone that peeks in here and needs a different idea for their kids for Easter. I can't believe you still haven't gotten that crack fixed. People sure do things at their own pace nowadays and you can't depend on anyone.

I guess I better go. I am going out to lunch with dd today and I want to go and get my hair cut first as I am getting a bit shaggy and it is getting long enough that my spikes are drooping! Have a good day and a great weekend everybody! Faye


You will look for number1
In the place where you have games for fun! (he has a cube seat in our living room that has all his games in it)

Now number 2 is real bad
Because it’s hidden with your dad!

It’s onto 3 so look around,
Trying looking where the phone is found.

Number 4 says please, please, please
Look for me where you put cheese.

Onto 5 that naughty egg
Its hiding behind a chair leg.

It’s 6 that we have not seen
Its where you get your dishes clean.

And onto 7 what should you do,
It’s hidden where granddad Barbeques.

The 8 the 8 or where to look
Its hiding where you always cook!

And number 9, know where it lands,
It’s at the place you wash your hands.

10 it’s such a sneaky dude,
He’s hidden where you keep pet food.

We’re close to 11 so take a look
And find it where you store books.

At last you found the best by far
Its out where Nonny parks her car!


Easter basket description: Includes: $5 Blockbuster Game Card ~ Perfect for renting XBox, PS2, Nintendo 64 Games! Solid Milk Chocolate Bunny "Happy Easter" Stuffed Gorilla Easter Bunny Disc Shooter ~ 6" bunny includes 11 foam discs Easter Light Up Suction Cup Ball Easter Foam Airplane Glider Foam Mini Easter Egg Missile Wooden Mind Teaser Puzzle Sports Ball Printed Easter Eggs filled with Chocolate Easter Eggs ~ 2 of them! Mini Gobstopper Egg Jaw-Breakers M&M's Milk Chocolate Easter Fun Pack Brent & Sam's Chocolate Chip Cookies Zesty White Cheddar Popcorn ...in a Round Chipwood Easter Pail.

Good morning flowers! It came storming through here yesterday, tornadoes and everything, but it is all quiet now. We had storm after storm instead of one continuous one. I went out to lunch with Kelly and we cut it short because it started pouring down and she wanted to get back to work. She only had a few blocks and I had much farther to go so I was kind of glad. We didn't sustain any damage and we rarely do because if it is just a storm, our garage protects us in the back and we have other condos and a clubhouse that protects the front.

Jean: I bought the basket already made up at an online gift basket place. Since we are having it at my house, it saves time. There are certain things that you can save money at Walmart and certain things to avoid. I think they have a lousy selection of any kind of toy not just little trinket stuff to put in baskets. I never buy their meat, no bedding stuff, but always buy my carpet shampoo and puppy pads as they are cheapest there. I also buy frozen dinners for Jack's lunch there as the commissary has a limited selection and they usual have some kind of deal there. All in all, like you I hate the place.

We have soccer practice this morning and I imagine the field will be total muck with all the rain. I dread it as we are going to the commissary afterward and I don't want to look a total muddy mess. Unless it is pouring down, they won't cancel practice.

You gals have a nice weekend. We are just going to hang out at home for the most part.

TTFN

Faye

Good Sunday morning everybody! Woo, it was cold here yesterday. We left the house to go to soccer practice with just light jackets and got there and the temp was about 10 degrees cooler and blowing. We didn't have blankets or anything and Jack lasted about 15 minutes then went back to the car, but I stayed until the last half hour then I told T I was going to go too. They practice for 75 minutes and everyone was frozen in about 20. My poor dd got stuck with the coaching because the coach backed out at the last minute and she knows little about soccer. On Saturday, her dh and 3 other guys were out there coaching. I felt like telling them all off because no one would take the coaching job including the one who backed out and he is the worst because he played college soccer. He was their coach for 2 seasons and said he would coach again so Kelly said she would assist and then he dumped it on her right before the season started. He should get off the field and keep his big mouth shut in my opinion. Her dh knows enough to help her but can only come on Saturdays.

Jean: That's ok, I ordered the Dr Dreadful stuff and when it arrived it was a refill pack! I had to go back and order the kit and that was another $25! I did get a second one for free that we can keep at our house though. You mix up stuff and it oozes out of this brain, you make spiders, stuff like that. All little boys like that macbre stuff. Glad you got the truck! We also were going to have deep fried turkey for dinner next Sunday (a southern thing) and my sil decided he wanted ham. He knows my dd despises ham and has since she was old enough to eat it so I have to come up with something for her now, though she said not to worry about it she would bring something. It is much more expensive to buy everything premade, but lots more fun to just shove stuff into the oven to warm instead of cooking all morning.

I guess we are going to HAVE to get a service tech out here to fool with our dryer. The stupid thing leaks copious amounts of water underneath when it has clothes in it to dry and that more than likely means a clog of lint somewhere my husband can't get to. I went to the bathroom, which is right across the hall from the laundry area and I had a river that ran right across the hall and into the bathroom. I thought I had another leak around the toilet, but all of that was dry and come to find out it came from under the dryer. Jack is going to take part of it apart and try to get more stuff out of it this morning, then the dishwasher is leaking a bit and we haven't ever noticed. Come to find out, when the service guy pulled it out, he put it in crooked and the door is not shutting firm so we have to unscrew it, pull it out and move it and screw it back in place. {{{{{SIGH}}}}

Everyone have a beautiful Palm Sunday

Faye