Whew!

I have spent the better part of the last two days working in my yard trying to get caught up before I have to devote all my time to gardening at Dad's. All the old mulch has been cleaned out and replaced with new pine straw. The rains were coming, so I had to get in gear and get it done. There is not much left to do...just wait for the new growth to come on all the established plants and make a drain through my rose bed in the back. I damed up the natural water flow of the back when I made that bed, so I am digging some of it out and putting a 4 inch PVC pipe down. It will then be covered with mulch and hardly noticeable. I also have ordered 200 zoysia grass plugs and the tool to plant them with. It sounds like a hardy grass that will spread and inhibit weed growth.

I BIT the BULLET....

and hired the professionals to come 6 times a year and do the stuff that I am, apparently, failing at. Last weekend I went to a Home and Garden Show and signed up to win a free year of taking care of my yard. I didn't win, but, of course, they came and looked at my yard and told me about all the weeds that are in it. They even lowered their lowest price for me because my yard is so small. They came today for the first treatment. I think I did the right thing!

AT&T MORONS!

I got a text message on my phone today that my rebate check had been mailed. Now there is no way in hell that they received the envelope contaning all that rebate stuff that I sent to them again just a couple of days ago.

I was WRONG!

Thank Goodness! CBC came back looking good. I thought it was one of those tests that included cholesteral, liver panels, kidney numbers, etc., but it wasn't.....just BLOOD!

I don't get it!

I have Medicare Part B and private insurance, so why would I owe my doctor $121???? Anyone??? Insurance types???? Liz?????

Holy CRAP!

I dread March if the winds are going to blow like this all month. Working outside is out of the question, so I have managed to get the house quite clean and actually get some Christmas and Mardi Gras stuff stored in the attic. My guest room is actually a guest room again and not covered in Mardi Gras, so come on and let's have a visit!!

They're gonna put me in the movies!

Well, maybe....maybe NOT! Our preacher told us this morning there was a casting call for a new movie to be filmed here today in our gym. They needed retired extras. All we had to do was fill out a paper and get a picture made. If they use us, it's $100 a day, which is the ONLY reason I went there.

Woo HOO!

I can feel spring in the air today even though the ground is so saturated. My morning started in clean house mode, but got sidetracked. Mom did not get her paper delivered this morning....new incompetent carrier, so I stopped everything and took her a newspaper. Her day doesn't go well if she doesn't get to do the crossword everyday. While I was there, Dad asked me to take him to look for a gopher trap. We went to a couple of places he wanted to go to, so that pretty much killed my clean house mode!! I did manage to re-ignite it later and got a lot done including cleaning the garage, which really bothers me if it is not clean because that's where most people enter the house. It MUST be neat and clean! I am always agreeable to taking Dad wherever he wants to go because I know he gets so tired of staying home. I also know he will not be around much longer! My sister-in-law had already offered to take him with her to Bossier City, but he declined. It won't take him long to forget that and he'll think they never take him anywhere....but they do! They take him lots of places.

Why I HATE rebates!

I bought a new Motorola RAZR phone when I switched to AT&T in early January. A $50 rebate was part of the deal, so the salesperson did all the paperwork (which is ridiculous) for me and put it in an envelope for me. I made copies of it all and sent it off. Today I got a letter that they couldn't process my rebate because it didn't have the receipts and the barcodes in it. I KNOW it did. I was livid and I called to let them know I was livid. They don't much care. I'm sure they hope everyone will just give up and not re-send the rebate info. WRONG! I will NOT stop until I get my slimy, little, stupid rebate in my greedy little paws!

Cease and desist!

Once again I am helping my doctor to retire early. His staff told me they all need new cars and I should just keep on coming in. Infection showed up in the urinalysis, so I had a shot of rocephin and now am on cipro for 10 days. I am so tired of medicine. I also had a CBC that I have a feeling will not be normal. Usually, I am very upbeat and not at all negative about my health because I always think I am fine and in relative good health, but I don't have a good feeling about this blood test. I hope I'm wrong!

Tonight I still have a slight temp, but not enough to make me miss going my favorite place to pig out on catfish. Trust me...I ate it all. I order a child's plate, but there is no child that can eat that much. I don't eat the fries or the hush puppies, but I do some damage on some catfish. We have a favorite waitress there that always treats us so nice. She always brings us "to die for" onion rings even though we don't order them. She is an avid Mudbugs (local ice hockey) fan. She takes her daughter and her 9 year old niece who has cancer. My dad asked her how much it costs for them to all go the hockey games. He was going to pay for their tickets, but she told him the team gives them free tickets because the little girl with cancer is such a fan.

My fever is back!

Damnit! It is creeping back up and the aches are starting again even with the aspirins I took. I called the doc's office and will be there at 8:45 tomorrow to be worked in. No appointments available!

Today is my sweet mom's 83rd birthday. I went down to take her a beautiful plant this morning and I told her I was all well. Whatever! I guess I lied!

Medical mystery...

This has happened to me several times and it is always such a mystery. I worked outside at Mom and Dad's Tuesday morning for about 3 hours. Nothing was wrong and I felt great. After coming back to my home and running a few errands I lay down on top of my bed with the warming blanket on underneath me and a blanket on top of me. I could not get warm. Then the aching started....the kind that is a result of high fever. I couldn't understand why I would have fever because I had no symptoms...nothing! I did have a high fever. I tried every OTC fever reducer and nothing worked. Even with all those meds, my temp stayed high. I stayed in bed all day yesterday just miserable. Last night I took a pain pill hoping that I would get some relief from the aching. I did get some rest until about 2 when I took another pain pill and still had fever. This morning I woke up at 6:30 with my shirt all wet. The fever was gone! WTH! I don't get it.

I'm done!

I was down at the home place at 9 this morning ready to go to work. Three hours later I was still not even close to being finished, but I did get a lot done. Dad's strawberry patch is ready to be planted. All the hills have been made, filled with good mulch, and pine straw on standby ready to go around each little plant. It was too cold for Dad to do anything. He can't stand anything less than 70 degrees. I guess that's an old age thing because it was perfect for me today at about 55 degrees....shorts and sweatshirt....that's how I roll!



I also have a fence row ready for the 15 berry plants (black berry. etc.) that he has ready to plant as well. Tomorrow I will go back and put in another few hours there while I neglect my own yard!!

I miss TEXAS!

My accountant just called me and told me I was getting money back from federal taxes, but that I would owe $625 in Louisiana income taxes. WTH! Texas doesn't have state income taxes. Even if my retirement was from Louisiana, I wouldn't have to pay, but since my money comes from Texas I have to pay. That SUCKS! By the time I pay the accountant and my state taxes, my federal refund will be used up! RATS!

Battening down the hatches!

I just had to go outside and move everything in the garage that could be tossed around by wind. We have predictions of 60 mph winds coming through here momentarily. Power is already out in Shreveport just west of here, so there is the real possibility of losing power here as well. Our power is supplied by the City of Minden and if it does go out, they get it back in fairly short order. I'm sure they have all the trucks on stand by right now. I like that.

My foot is 100% better. I can even move the joint in the big toe. Unfortunately, the steroid is still in my system thus causing blood sugar issues. The steroid keeps me hungry, but I try not to eat carbohydrates, which would raise it some without the aid of the steroid. Yesterday, I ate boiled shrimp and today I ate boiled crawfish, neither of which would raise my blood sugar, but today it has remained around the 200 mark. That's not good! High blood sugars are what cause nerve damage and kidney damage, so I try to avoid having any sugars that high. Since that rarely ever occurs, I'm hoping this couple of days won't cause damage.

Please NO!

This woman SCARES me. How could anyone with a brain vote for her. Her voice alone is so NON PRESIDENTIAL........It's just plain freaky!

Holy CRAP AGAIN!

Today would have been a perfect day for me to make progress with all my outside projects, but NO.....I woke up in the night with yet another swollen foot of death! Gout REALLY hurts. My toe never gets completely well, always being very stiff and painful when I try to bend it. Hopefully, we are going to address that problem. I could barely walk, so I had to go in yet AGAIN to the doctor. I told him that it's a shame I have to come see him more than my parents do. Before I came here, I went to the doctor maybe once a year. I was rarely down! Needless to say, I have done nothing useful today but lie around wishing I could go outside and work in the yard. I got another celestone shot, the magical potion that masks the pain and raises my blood sugar. Since it is a steroid, it makes me hungry, but I have to be very careful not to eat foods to exacerbate the problem.

I'm in charge!

My brother left today on a little road trip, so that means I am in charge of seeing about the parents every day. When he is here, I don't have to go there every day because he sees them every morning. They really miss him when he is gone. He spent all yesterday morning doing stuff for Dad like planting some fruit trees and getting the insurance adjuster to look at damage on Dad's truck. There is always something that needs to be fixed. Most of it I do not know how to do, but my brother does. He can fix anything. I miss them when they are on vacation as well.

Amen, Maxine!

I'm just sayin'

Congress needs to tend to their business and leave BASEBALL alone! Congress sucks at doing their own job and now they want to screw up BASEBALL, too! Leave it alone already!!!!!!

Christmas all over again!

Yesterday the land man came and brought me a check for leasing my few little acres down at the home place. Today I used a $100 gift card from Belk that I have had since Christmas. It seems that I am such a creature of habit that I take the sheets off my bed, wash them and put them back on because I only like one set of sheets that I have. These are so soft and comfy. Unfortunately, they wore so thin that they ripped. Well, of course, that just will not do, so I spent all the gift card plus $25 on some new sheets and a new mattress pad. They had better be soft. They are 300 TC sateen. I bought some 400TC once and they got those little pills all over them, so I am very skeptical about sheets. Also, I am very picky about sheets! Let's face it, I am pretty damn picky about everything.....which probably explains why I don't have a sweetheart on Valentine's Day!!!

CRAP!

I was going through internet withdrawal yesterday because I had none. Usually, my provider is right on an outtage no matter when it occurs, so I called this morning. Turns out it was just ME! All I had to do was disconnect the wireless router and plug it back in! Next time I'll know!

911?

There was a time when my doorbell ringing at all hours was common, but not now! Friday night my doorbell rang twice after 1 in the morning. Of course, I did not even think about opening it. Finally, I did go and look out a window and saw a stalled vehicle out on the street. I did not know whether to call 911 or not. How was I to know it wasn't some drunk who would just kick in my door? Anyone who would ring the bell at a house with no lights on can't be dealing with a full deck anyway. And who on Earth does not own a cell phone! I had the phone in my hand, but it wasn't an emergency. My brother told me it could have easily turned into an emergency and, yes, I should have called 911! Next time I will know!

The WORK season has begun!

I was at Dad's by 8 this morning. My brother laughed at me for being there so early. It is sooooo not like me! I told him I wanted to get there while he was there so he could start the tiller for me. He did and I got a lot done. Tomorrow the rains come and winter returns to mess up what I did today. The rain will make the tilled area all hard again, but I will do it again and get it ready to plant potatoes.

Mission sort of accomplished...

I got started in my yard and got half the roses pruned, treated with fungicide and new mulch around them. It's like starting over because all the dead leaves had to be removed from the ground around the plants and new mulch put down. I'm not finished! If this doesn't stop the black spot, I will pull those roses up, throw them away and give up on roses.


Last night Dad wanted to take us all to dinner and talk to us about leasing our 60 acres around the home place. The independent lease hound will pay $100 an acre plus a percentage of any gas if they should happen to drill a producing gas well. Dad already gets money from 13 gas wells on his old home place, but any wells drilled near our current home place have been dry. We don't even know why they want to lease our land, but we all agreed that we would go ahead and take that $6,000 and run. Of course, all the money would go to Mom and Dad except for the 6 acres that my brother and I own there. Dad did say he would give us each some of the money because he doesn't need it.

Awesome day!

I was down at the homeplace by 10 this morning ready to go to work. Due to some ongoing backaches, I was afraid I would be rather worthless, but I did a lot. All the flower beds are cleaned out, all the dead pot plants gone, all the leaves ground up and the driveway all blown clean.

At 11:45, I was finished and in for the awesome lunch of fresh fried perch, collard greens, hot water cornbread and baked sweet potatoes. I thought I was finished after I got the kitchen cleaned and sent Mom on her way to the beauty shop. Then my brother cranked up his chainsaw and started cutting down dead trees and burning the trash pile. So his wife, my dad and I joined him and went to work in the back yard. We got a lot done. In fact, everything that needed to be done in the yard is done. The weather was perfect for shorts and a sweatshirt for me. Tomorrow I guess I will focus on my own yard. It's time to prune the roses and try to rid them of the black leaf spot.

I read a great quote today...

"If we must have a Democrat in the White House, it might as well be McCain!" He is soooooo not a conservative! In fact, he is a RINO! (Republican in Name Only) My first presidential election that I could vote in was when John Kennedy was elected. I didn't vote for him, but he was more conservative than John McCain. What a MESS! All those people who hate George Bush are going to appreciate him more! I'm not happy with him either, but GEEZE LOUISE....we are in big trouble!

Ho Hum....

We had the girls' lunch today for the last time at our friend's old house. She and her husband have built a new home right behind mine and will be moving in a couple of weeks. Another one in our group of ladies is a couple of months behind in construction, but she will be on the same street behind me. Our last meal was homemade French onion soup with French bread, salad, and fresh blueberry pie. It was awesome!


After lunch I was supposed to work in my parents' yard. I went, but the wind was so bad that it was too hard to get anything done. My brother stopped by on his way down to our pond to see if he could catch a fish. He caught 14 white perch, so tomorrow we are eating his fish and my collard greens. Yes, we are self sufficient!

OK...I concede!

I'm admitting to the world that I am becoming more of a doofus every day. Today I spent a good 30 minutes trying to stop advertisements from AT&T coming as text messages on my new Motorola RAZR. All I had to do was send STOP to the four numbers. I have already done that once and got the return answer that they would be stopped. However, they did NOT stop, so I did it again except that I couldn't remember how I finally got the message sent last time. I used to be fairly tech saavy, but those days have left me in the dust. I finally got the message sent. Now we'll see if the ads actually stop!!! I have a feeling this new Camcorder is going to be the death of me!!

It's all over!

We didn't take our float to the parade due to possibility of really bad weather. I don't know how bad it was in Bossier where the parade was held, but here we just got a little shower. Anyway, Mardi Gras is over until about August when we start preparing for the next season.

Life is back....finally!

I woke up this morning at 6:30 starving, so I knew I was over the crud that has messed up my Mardi Gras. After a sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffin, I actually had some energy to do some yard work. My tulips are now in the ground because they were already sprouting in the bag they came in. I went to check on Mom and Dad since I haven't seen them since Friday. They are both still struggling with head colds.

We are under a severe weather threat, so our last parade tonight is real iffy. It's 73 degrees with a cold front on the way, so a major weather event is predicted. I'm not real sure I am up for another parade, but I have plans to go if it happens. My strength is returning. I have managed to go up in the attic four times putting Christmas stuff up, so I am on the road to recovery. Yay!

On a lighter note....

I checked the website for the winners of all the drawings for St. Jude. Big surprise....my name was there for a Sony HandyCam. I spent $5 on the ticket and the camera is worth $750. Now I have to learn how to use it, I guess. I don't know why I signed up for that. I really don't need it, but I did need all the other stuff that I didn't win. We broke another record and raised $788,000 for St. Jude. Per capita we raise more money than any other place in the nation. St. Jude is very familiar with Minden, Louisiana.

Just DAMN!

This graphic explains how I feel.The parades would have been so much fun if I had not been sick. Due to my being so idle physically since I got sick before Christmas, my back was killing me during the 3 1/2 hours of the parade on Saturday. That's constant dancing and throwing beads for that long. I had a chair on the float that I had to sit in quite a bit, but that parade is hard work. They estimated half a million people along the route. We have a DJ on board and he is awesome. He keeps us dancing the whole time. After the parade ended on Saturday, we had breakfast served to us at the King's wife's little restaurant. Just perfect. I had done very little drinking....2 lemon drops and one 7 ounce beer, but I had to stop on the way home to throw up. Turns out I had some sort of virus. I was not sick again until just before the next parade started yesterday. I should have never got on the float, but I did. Thank goodness I was on the end and had a plastic container to throw up in. I hadn't eaten a bite since the night before, so there was nothing to actually throw up. Sometimes that just makes it worse. Finally, today I have managed to keep some crackers and some sprite down. I just ate the old stand by...chicken noodle soup. I hope it stays down. I am supposed to do one more parade Tuesday night, but it is a short parade. I hope I can make it. Every upper torso muscle is sore from all the dry heaving...well, now aren't I just a ray of sunshine!

Almost over!

Mardi Gras ends on Tuesday, but tomorrow and Sunday are really big parades. I just hope I have enough throws plus I've been invited to ride Tuesday night in the final parade of the season. It's a small one and we are only entering our children's float. The big float won't fit where this parade rolls.

My dad finally came down with what all the rest of us have had....Mom and I twice! He's pretty sick, but it isn't the flu...just a bad cold.


This weekend is a big weekend in Minden. It's totally devoted to raising money for St Jude. I will be gone all of Saturday and Sunday, so I got all my pledges in today. They actually have people pledging from all over via the internet. Go here and check out all the things that a $5 or $10 one time pledge could possibly win for you. ALL the items are donated, so ALL the money goes to St. Jude. It's a wonderful thing.I have already dropped $300, but St. Jude is my favorite charity and $100 of that is for the grand prize, which is a Denali or a Mercedes.They only sell 2000 of those tickets.