Good morning everyone! Hope your hump day is starting out well. I have been busy this morning finishing up the trip laundry, trying to get housecleaning done and finishing Emma's last hat. The little heart on the topknot has a bell in it and tinkles when the hat moves. Here it is all done and now I have them in vinegar water setting the colors so they won't run. I will then wash them and get them ready to send to Emma.

The Wilkinson household is all excited this morning. If the Cubs win their game tonight and tomorrow, they will clinch their division title and be able to go on to the playoffs. One more step towards the World Series! Also, Jay called last night and Alicia found a way to get off Thanksgiving weekend so they will be here and we are going to combo Thanksgiving and Christmas. We are going to do something fun this year. We buy for the two kids, but not the adults. This year we are going to exchange names for the adults with a $10 limit, but not for themselves. Whomever's name we have, we buy a toy that fits their personality so let's say I have Tom's name, I would buy a Rubic's Cube because he is so brainy, or an Oscar the Grouch for Jack! We are then going to take all the toys we bought and give them to Toys for Tots. I think it will be lots of fun. I told Jack, too bad they don't still make Chatty Cathy in case I get Kelly!

I have started my first candy striped stocking cap for their stockings for Christmas. It is Jiffy yarn so nice and soft and yet can be washed and dried. I have 6 adults and two kids to make so I have to get on the stick.

Maggie: Congrats on your big loss! Great job!

Susan: Hope the quilt expo thingy went well and you enjoyed all the different ones. Thomas is selling popcorn again for Cub Scouts, but I can't eat it anymore and we still have tons left from last year. CSA are doing a popcorn to the troops deal and his Cubscout Pack wants to send 1000 boxes. I think I bought something like 10 or so. I am not sure. I bought $50 worth whatever that comes out to be. It is a way I can support T, but not get stuck with tons of popcorn this year.

Jean: Jack has an external GPS and I bought him a new holder because the one that came with his Tom Tom kept coming off the window and falling off. I swear one of those times it was going to ruin it and we just bought the thing to take to Houston. I went Yahooing and found a place and found one that works great because it kind of screws on not just suction cup so it stays in place. I don't use the thing, but we did use it tons in St Louis.

Gloria: Hope you are doing well. It sounds like it. We are still pretty warm here, but seems to be cooling down at night.

Well gals, I gotta git! I have so much I want to get done today!
Faye

Good morning to you all! Hope your Thursday is starting out well. I get to work on getting the downstairs cleaned today. I think I am going to put a couple of mutant chickens as Jack calls them in the oven for dinner tonight.

I bought some bison burgers and hot dogs and am going to try them. Jack won't eat them unless he doesn't know and I don't think I can get those by him. I hear they are very good. Anyone had bison?

Jean: Sounds like you are going to have a rough year at school. The kids just seem to be gettin rowdier and rowdier. We always seem to have plumbing issues in the condo and I have to get someone in here again. The place is going to fall down around our ears. lol

I have Emma's hats all wrapped up and needing to be taken to the post office and sent to her. I am now trying to get those stocking caps done. They use bigger needles so it is a much easier project.

Other than that, nothing exciting in our world. Oh, I did get a couple phone calls from my dd yesterday. Very mysterious asking questions about what we were doing this weekend then calling back and asking if Jack had Columbus or Veterans day off, which he has Veteran's day off. She said it was about my birthday present (my bday is the 28th) and that I was going to love it. A little later, I checked my email and there was a confirmation from the swanky hotel/casino in Tunica. She had booked us an over night stay with 2 buffets! I asked her if like the contests do, if that included $1000 playing money and she said, no the money I had to come up with on my own! lol So, we get a little trip in November for an overnighter.

I got to get up from here and get the cleaning started. The job I love to hate. Have a good one gals.
Faye

Looks like it is going to be another nice day here. It is nice to have the cooler temps, but still be warm. I guess we will make the trek out to the commissary tomorrow.

I have the first candy striped stocking cap done. One down and 7 to go! lol I call it my "Dr Seuss on the Loose" hat! I am making one family the red with white, then the other family white with red, then maybe one whole white with red trim and one whole red with a bit of white trim for Jack and I just to have them a bit different.

I noticed when we were in St Louis and had gone to Cracker Barrel for breakfast what cute ornaments they have this year. I think I am going to go and pick some up to add to what I have and weed out the old stuff. I am going to decorate on a snowman theme this year I think. I got a "general" catalogue similar to Lilian Vernon and they have a lot of snowman stuff in it. Since the kids are coming down for Thanksgiving, the tree will go up early. Actually, this is the first year since B died that I have put up a tree because he always crawled up the base and it would tip over.

Jean: I remember in high school always being so affronted when the kids tried to trip up a sub. I thought it was such a mean thing to do. I guess nowadays I would ask for ID! lol Besides the water bill you have to be careful of mold. You surely don't want that to get started anywhere.

Jay and Alicia were at Wrigley field out in the bleachers yesterday and he kept sending me pics from his blackberry of everything. We were down 6-2 bottom of 9th with two outs and got one run in then the pitcher put two on base and Geovany Soto came to the plate, hit a homer and we tied. Jay said the ballpark went nuts when that happened. Jack and I were watching on tv and were whooping it up pretty good too. They ended up winning in the bottom of the 12th. They only have to win 2 games to win the division and they have 9 still to play to end the season. I always get tickled as the season always ends on my birthday. I even got to go to Wrigley one year for my birthday and Jay got the radio announcer to put it out on the radio for my birthday. We had a group go with us and man oh man was it cold that day. The Cubs had already clinched the division so that last game meant nothing and the regular starters weren't playing, but all the duds were. We only stayed for about half the game because of the cold (we didn't have winter stuff with us as the day before it had been really nice so we froze) but it was nice to see one of the ballplayers from the 70's get his number retired that day.

Better get up and get going. I have things to do this morning as usual.
Faye

Good evening, ladies! A beautiful cool day here with more to follow. Chilly at night, though. I had to put a quilt on my bed last night.

Took my car for the state inspection today and an oil change. Of course I could get away with just that. They found a leak in the rear cylinders so that was another $250 but at least it's good for another year...I hope.

Tomorrow I'm going to my friend's house for the day and we'll do some quilting.

Faye, I hope you get a picture of everyone in their hats for us to see. I'll be a great sight.

Jean, glad you found the leak and Bob could fix it. It sure is expensive to have to get a plumber involved.

Have a good night!

Good morning everyone. Today is commissary day so it will be an early day for us. I like to get out there when they open and 9 and get the darn stuff done. We always have stuff they don't carry we have to get so that is another trip to Target. I have quit going to Walmart if I can. Target is a bit more expensive, but worth it just to be in a clean store.

Susan: Cars seem to bleed money most of the time. I have to say though that I can't complain about the grand marquis. We have had a couple issues, but mostly just regular maintenance. If I remember right, Va turns the darn car inside out for an inspection. We always dreaded that time of year because we never had the money to get stuff fixed if they found an issue. Here they just test your horn, lights, wipers, turn signals, make you set your emergency brake and try and back up, and tests the emissions. Takes about 2 minutes to do. Thing is, if you live in the county, you don't have to have your car inspected, in the city you do. Now, you can drive less than 10 miles down the road and be in the county and everyone in the county usually works in the city so their "smog" is in the city anyway. Dumb, but that's the way it is here. Up until about 8 years ago, our area wasn't incorporated so we didn't have to have inspections either. That's the thing, there are communities dotting in and out around Memphis that are unincorporated so they don't do inspections. Just another way to get tax $$ not really a way to protect the citizens. Funny thing, Jack works for the city, but as long as he lives within Shelby county he is ok and Shelby county stretches a long way. There are a few guys who live at least 60 miles from the plant but are still part of the county. We had a fire chief who was hired who lived outside the county and they gave him 30 days to have a county residence. I bet he didn't live 2 miles outside Shelby county. It is all silly.

Jean: Glad Bob found your problem and can get it fixed. Plumbing I think is the worst because it is something you have to tear into walls and ceilings to fix half the time. I guess that teacher you worked with thought you would just take care of things. Kind of her to allow you to be the one to right the kid up.

Everyone have a great weekend and don't work too hard!
Faye

Good morning everyone. It is still quite warm everyday here. Got up into the high 80's here yesterday I think. We got the commissary shopping done and came out of the store and it was terribly humid.

Jean: I will keep that in mind about the plumbing. It doesn't matter because we would have to hire someone no matter what. Some of the stuff is covered in our home warranty though. Our water bills a year ago went up
100%. I guess the stupid city hadn't raised water rates in 20 years so they did it all at once. My water bill went from like $6 to $15 a month. Jack told me yesterday there has been a major shake up at work. They have had a lot of problems out there, racial and other and the new Public Works director is tired of it. The other plant doesn't have problems like the one Jack works at. Anyhow, I guess they removed the plant manager who has been there over 25 years and "reassigned" him, fired one of the managers under him, "reassigned" another one, and demoted a guy from a foreman back to just a mechanic. There are a lot of black guys out at the plant and they seem to always be filing grievances for everything. They seem to think that if they don't get a job they want whether they are trained or not, a grievance is going to get them what they want. They have had mechanics apply for the job Jack has and they have no electrical training and when they don't get it they file a grievance. That seems to be the biggest issue with the grievances. Jack told me that something had been done to him that he never told me about because he thought it would upset me too much. I guess they were in a safety meeting and everytime Jack tried to make a point about this certain issue, this black guy who is a real pain in the tush to the plant and Jack has a big chip about whites, and happens to be be the shop steward would interrupt him. Jack finally got fed up and turned around and told him to shut the heck up. He filed a grievance against Jack and won even though he leaned into Jack and told him to watch his back and that they could take it outside and he would show Jack who was the man. He called Jack a Cracker a couple times which is deragatory for a white person and made some other remarks to him. When Jack went to the grievance meeting he said, "At least I admit I said it to him and I would have done it again and to whomever kept interrupting me, not just a black guy. I seem to be more of a stand up guy than he is because he has repeatedly called me names and made threats to me and he denies it all." I guess Jack got a verbal reprimand and it lasts 6 months then is removed if he has no further trouble, which he hasn't. I find it disgusting that this ridiculousness goes on out there. I did ask Jack if after this happened if the other black guys seemed to be rude to him or refuse to talk to him and such and he said no. He gets along fine with the other control tech out there and the black electricians. Seems like the trouble makers are the lower paid guys that don't have skills and want promotions simply for money and think they should get them so are envious of the ones who do have them. They seem to ignore the fact that black or white the electricians have to have a lot of training to do what they do they don't simply fall into the job. It has nothing to do with skin color. Anyway, we shall see what happens. It looks like Jack's boss may apply for the maintenance manager's position and Jack is going to then apply for his bosses job. We shall see. lol Maybe if women ran the thing........

Well gals, I am going to put away the dishes out of the diswasher and sit and knit for awhile. Have a wonderful Sunday!

Faye

Good evening, ladies! It was a beautiful day today in the 70s.

Had a great time yesterday with my friend. After church today we had a pancake breakfast to benefit the youth ministry. I spent the afternoon making blocks for a signature quilt I am making for a wedding gift.

Faye, I think Jack is a remarkable man to be able to stay calm with those stupid people he works with.

Jean, you sure are luck to have Bob the Plumber living with you. It costs a fortune around here. We have good water but I still use a Britta filtered pitcher for drinking water and I have a Britta filter on the kitchen facuet.

Maggie, those beans sound wonderful. I love to play Monopoly.

I have to finish my Bible study assignment so this is it for today. Have a good evening.

Good morning to you all! Looks like it is going to be a very nice day here today. I have made a daily cleaning list for myself that I hope will keep me from getting worn out doing all the cleaning at once. We shall see if I like it or if I just go back to doing upstairs and downstairs. With just the two of us and "mighty dog" things don't get dirty. Fortune doesn't shed so I don't have dog hair all over.

Maggie: I know your beans were a big success yesterday. Jack loves to play Monopoly as does Thomas, but I am not much of a fan of the game. Jack is a little too cutthroat for me! lol Glad you have your office all put together now. It is nice to have a place to go to.

Jean: I hate it when the bagger put non food items in with food items. We are "nice" shoppers as we put items together to be bagged, ie all the cleaning supplies and such together, all can goods, all produce, all boxed foods, then soft food items like bread, noodles, eggs and such and I come home and find canned good with my now squished bread! We learned our lesson a couple years ago about putting cleaning stuff last as the idiots put cleaning stuff with meat and it leaked. I was more than livid as I had to drive back out to the commissary and get the stuff exchanged. Even with the gas prices and the commissary savings it was too much money just to heave out.

Susan: I am almost done with hat number two. This one is Thomas's as it is smaller. I just have the decreases to do then sew it up. I bought these buttons to put on the front of the cuff of each hat. The cuffs are pretty wide so I bought 2 inch buttons. As I said before, if the adults don't want to keep theirs, we will give them to charity or I will take them to the mission downtown town. Homeless people can always use a warm hat. Our water is artisian well water so it is pretty good actually, but when we lived in San Diego, it was disgusting and we always drank bottled water even though we really couldn't afford to buy it. I noticed the water in St Louis is nasty tasting. I had regular water, Oj and soft drinks and iced tea and it tainted the taste of everything. You could go to suburb areas that didn't have the taste in the water and we were in a couple.

I should be getting up and getting going. I thought maybe Jack's new phone would be here today since it shipped on Friday from right here in Memphis, but looks like it won't come until tomorrow so I don't have to hurry around and get dressed. I can clean first.


Have a good start to the week everyone! Only 14 weeks until.......
Faye