I went to my regular Thursday lunch with the ladies today and did they have a surprise for me!!! They had birthday cake, gifts, and free lunch! I never told any of them I had a birthday coming up, but they informed me that one of them had access to all public records and they even knew how old I was. One of them even admitted she was older than me!!! It was nice, but I was very surprised. There were 7 people there.
I would have been happy with Joey, Mario and Emmitt....they were all awesome! Emmitt won!
Absolute GENIUS! As with all animated movies, there is more there for adults than for children. Children will love it and adults will love it more...so many clever things and innuendos. I have great admiration for makers of animated films, the main one being that I don't have to THINK to understand their movie!!
When I came out of the movie, the winds had subsided somewhat and there was a cold drizzle...just the kind of weather to come home and read a good book!!
We have wind advisories today and they are NOT KIDDING! I NEVER experienced wind like this in Texas unless there was a tropical storm. I was never there during a hurricane! This is serious wind with some gusts up to 43 already. It's enough to cause power failures and trees to fall. We have been warned! I walked outside on the patio and there were little birds huddled on the ground next to the house. They tried to fly away, but the wind was tossing them all over. They can't sit on the fence. Now the funny thing is that my neighbor across the street is out with his blower trying to keep the leaves off his porch and driveway. That man is way more obsessed than I am !!!
I'm thinking this will be a good day to take in a movie. I used to do that a lot in Texas, taking advantage of the cheaper tickets for the matinees. I don't even know if the tickets are cheaper here in the afternoon, but I guess I'll find out. I'm thinking I'll go see Flushed Away. It's my kind of movie and on my level of thinking!!! I"ll be back with my review!
Last night I was awake from 1:30 until 4:30 for no apparent reason. Have no idea why...even the Tylenol P.M. didn't help. As a result, I never even got out of my comfy lounge pants and sloppy t-shirt. I did ZERO scrapbook pages, but I did bake a pie....well, me and Sara Lee. Sara Lee made it and I baked it. I had this pie a couple of years ago and was never able to find it again until this week. It is delicious so I had pie for my evening meal!!! It is Apple Nut caramel pie! 
This company is awesome. Today I received the replacement for the package that was never delivered (although the website said it was delivered on 11/2). Not even one hour later, my doorbell rang and when I opened the door another package from QVC was there. It was the original. The one delivered earlier required a signature. This one was just left there and I didn't even see who delivered it. I assume it was UPS again. I told the guy who delivered the first one that this was a replacement for one that I never got even though UPS had it marked as delivered. Now.....here's the kicker and what makes QVC awesome and stand head and shoulders above others......when I called to see how to return one of the packages, the lady told me to just keep it. I told her it was a toy and some needy child will be getting it as soon as I figure out how to find someone who needs it.
My mom used to be known for her cooking. She was the absolute best. She called me today and told me she was cooking some collard greens (not from our garden), so I went down for lunch. She told me right away the greens weren't good. She was right. They were tough, but she tried all morning to get them tender. Even her fried chicken wasn't so good, but that is because she has to use corn starch as batter due to my brother's gluten allergy and it just doesn't do as well as flour. I'm proud of her for continuing to try to cook and I feel sorry for her that it isn't like it used to be and she knows it!!
I got back home this morning by 10 and I have not hit a lick since then. Sleep has been the most action I could muster. A little while ago I got a burst of energy and jumped in the shower planning to go to the scrapbook store in Shreveport. That didn't happen! I don't know why I am devoid of energy. Usually, when the weather turns cool, which it did again last night, I am rejuvenated, but today.....not so much!! There's always tomorrow!!
Yesterday I finally mowed the yard after waiting about a month to let the rye grass get a good start. I planted those seed using a spreader, but some places are just thicker than others. Some places it doesn't seem to be coming up at all. If it doesn't I will buy more seeds because I already gave my leftovers to my brother to put down at the pond at Dad's. I hated to mow it because it was really beautiful.
This morning I went down to Mom and Dad's around 8:30 to pick up pecans. There were some winds last night when a cold front came through, so I thought there would be a lot to pick up, but there were none. Looks like there will not be nearly as many as we had a couple of years ago. While there, Mom told me she fell in the night Thursday night about 12:30 going to the bathroom and couldn't get up. Dad didn't find her until about 3. She had managed to scoot over near enough to her bed to lean against it and pull some covers off of it to cover herself. Dad had to call my brother to come get her up. He asked her why she didn't call him earlier, but she couldn't reach the phone. I set up one of those remote doorbells a couple of years ago with the ringer in Dad's room, but she doesn't know if it still works. I'll check on that this week for her. He probably couldn't hear it anyway!!
On October 25, I placed an order on QVC. I got an email saying it had shipped on October 27, but I never got it. Today I finally got around to checking online and found that it was marked delivered by UPS on November 2 at 6:57 P.M. That is sooooooo not true! I called QVC and with NO QUESTIONS ASKED, they issued a replacement to be delivered on or about November 14th. In the past, if I was not home, they just left the package at the front door, which is perfectly safe to do here. I checked every day and it was never there. I love not having to hassle with customer service!!
I went to Mom and Dad's this afternoon to pick up pecans. There weren't many to pick up, but I mowed under the trees so they will be easier to see when they do fall. Unfortunately, the leaves were falling as fast as I could mow them. When I finished that, I fixed a nice row and planted LOTS of poppy seeds. Yes, they are the same as poppy seeds that are on poppyseed rolls, so they are very tiny. They are planted simply by tossing them out on the prepared ground.
My "little brother" had a birthday yesterday, so I had lunch at his house along with my parents, their pastor, and a friend of my brother's who was born on the same day.Blogger wouldn't let me post yesterday so, at my age, I forgot what I wanted to post!
Today I had lunch with the girls as we do every Thursday. Had to turn down a lunch at a lady's house that I met in Sunday School. This group of ladies that I have lunch with on a regular basis are "kindred spirits" to me. We are a lot alike! The person who built my house and sold it to me introduced me to this group. They are all friends of hers. I heard her tell them that I was a kindred spirit and I think that was an appropriate term. The Sunday School lady.....uuuhhhh...not so much!
All those political ads just drive me nuts! I voted, but I wasn't passionate about any of them. Since I am a new resident of Louisiana, I don't really know the candidates and their positions. I don't vote straight party ticket, but for the person. We had some assinine amendments to vote on, so I did study them before going to the polls. Louisiana has some weird stuff to vote on.
This afternoon I took my dad to the hearing aid man because his brand new $1600 hearing aid quit working. Turns out it was just stopped up.
Since I got home, I have made a pan of fudge to take to my brother tomorrow. It's his birthday and due to his gluten allergy, he can't have cake. I also got an ice cream cake that my sister-in-law ordered for him. Poor fellow. I feel sorry for him because gluten is in EVERYTHING!!!
I got my flu shot today and my arm has been aching ever since. That never happened before and it doesn't seem to to happening to anyone else!!!!
It has been so dark and rainy and dreary all day that I have just been unmotivated to do anything constructive. I have slept, watched TV, and done a few scrapbook pages. It's perfect scrapbooking weather, but my creative juices just aren't flowing. I have 11 pages (that's actually 22 front and back) left to do and not much time.
I totally did it! I knew when I saw this a couple of weeks ago that I would go back and buy it and today was the day! He is so cute. Right now he is in the garage awaiting his turn to be a lawn ornament. He is animated and tips his hat!!
I keep an ongoing list of books that I want to read. Right now, the only ones on it are new publications. I usually wait until they have been out for awhile, then go to Amazon and buy used copies. I am anxiously waiting for these to show up on a used list so I can afford to buy them:
Culture Warrior: Bill O'Reilly
The Innocent Man: John Grisham
My Father, My President: Dora Bush Koch
Redneck Woman: Gretchen Wilson
Paula Deen Celebrations:Paula Deen
For two days I saw one of those little green suckers wedged in a crevice in the siding that is on the inside walls of my patio. I think he thought he was in for the winter, but I thought otherwise. Today, I sprayed him with wasp spray.....nothing happened! So I got the broom to get him out and send him on his merry way. He was very lethargic, which adds to my belief that he was down for the winter!!! I tried to get him over the back fence, but I'm not sure that I got him there.
I went to Mom and Dad's this morning at 9 to pick up pecans. There were none on the ground, so I guess the wind hasn't blown hard enough since I last picked them up a few days ago. Dad decided I needed to take them to town (that would be Wal-Mart). I was happy to do that except that when I go out in public, I try to look decent. I had on sweats, had not washed my face or combed my hair. He doesn't care about stuff like that and I didn't even mention it. Just went on and took them looking really rough!!! I did not get home until 12:30, so I just took a nap. The rest of the day I have been lazy! 
And I love living in a place that actually has a winter. It's only 200 miles from where I used to live, but the climate is moderately different and I love it. I have not turned on the heat, yet, but I remote controlled the fireplace!!! My grandparents would never believe my fireplace. They chopped wood!!!!Horrors!!!!
Anyone who knows me knows I am petrified of snakes....even rubber ones. I know it's ridiculous, but I just can't help it. Today my brother and sister-in-law came to help me add another sheet of plywood to the attic floor so I can have some more room for JUNK! When my sister-in-law was looking for something in their truck, she found his rubber snake and threw it on the ground by my feet. That is enough to cause a heart attack on me. I should have never told them that my heart was deemed good after my stress test. He had backed off because he was afraid I would have a heart attack, but now they aren't afraid anymore. I told her that she wasn't always mean like that. She said she had lived with him too long!!!!
Years ago some of my best times were at the state fair held in Shreveport. This is its 100th year, so I ventured over to it this afternoon while parking and entrance was free. The weather was cool and beautiful and I looked at the exhibits and sampled some great fair food.
Being the wonderful daughter that I am :), I made from scratch potato soup and cornbread this morning. I ate some and it was so good that I called Mom and told her I was bringing lunch to them. I'm in the will for another day!!!
Yesterday when I went out to get the paper fairly early, these were abundant on my sidewalk in front of my house.....well, this time it was slugs. All summer I picked up snails every morning off my patio and put them in a paper cup. They were very small snails. I had to do some research to find out the difference in slugs and snails. The basic difference is that snails have a shell on their back and slugs don't. Slugs leave a silvery trail behind them and I saw lots of those trails when the sun shone down on my concrete. Slugs eat plants. I don't know what snails eat. I put out stuff to try to rid myself of the slugs and snails. Today I didn't see any, but it was considerably colder today than yesterday....so I don't know which made the difference.
My mom cooked the turnip greens that I picked yesterday and some fried corn bread. Now that's some real soul food. She threw in some baked sweet potatoes just to ensure that it was real soul food. Made me want to go watch some BET television for awhile!!!
I cannot believe how much stuff I managed to pack in one of those Christmas shoeboxes from the church that will be sent to a child somewhere in the world......2 t-shirts, ball cap, car, flashlight, markers, paper, games , lots of candy, toothpaste, tooth brushes, yo-yo. I went to Fred's and spent $26 and almost got it all in there. It was fun. That's what it is all about!!!
I spent all morning doing the household chores which included washing, mopping, changing the sheets...and even cleaning the baseboards. One would think a new construction wouldn't get so dirty, but it does. I also did some plant trimming outside. While I was watching All My Children, I made brownies. When that was over, I put some brownies in a container that belonged to my sister-in-law and took some to her. I was hoping my brother was in the woods hunting because he could not eat the brownies due to his gluten allergy, but he was there. I felt bad giving her the brownies. She has to cook everything gluten free, so she never gets any good stuff anymore. When I left there. I went to take some brownies to Mom and Dad. Mom was asleep in her room and Dad was asleep in his room, so I cleaned the kitchen, picked the turnip greens, mowed under the pecan trees and picked up the pecans. Damn, I have been busy. I think I'll go rest now!!!
I was invited to a costume party tonight by some members of the local Mardi Gras krewe. I am not a member of the krewe, but I have been invited to join. I was a judge of the costumes because I didn't know most of the people so I was very impartial and I didn't have to wear a costume. It was so much fun. That is really a fun group of people. The person I rode to the party with was dressed as Mama Cass and she got shitfaced. I had to drive us home. At least, I drove to my home, then another passenger got behind the wheel to take himself home, then the owner of the car was to take herself home. She didn't have far to go and Minden closes up rather early so I hope she got home OK. She is the Queen this year of the Mardi Gras Ball, which is in January. She told me that I would be getting an invitation to sit at one of the Queen's tables at the ball. Wow! I have never been to one of those and it is a formal affair, so I guess I had better start looking for something to wear!!!
Yesterday I never left the house. In fact, I never even raised the garage door. We have had two wonderful days of rain, so I just stayed home and did nothing constructive. Today I have been scrapbooking. We have wind advisories today and the wind is really fierce so I haven't ventured out yet. I'm thinking that I must go find some place to get a haircut. I hate not having my hairdresser. I have already turned down an invitation to go to lunch with the girls today since we didn't go on our usual Thursday. I was just too lazy to get dressed for lunch.
Update: I got a haircut!! Check it out!!! O My Gosh! I got me some spikes. I didn't mean to, but I do.
Don't even go there! It's the much needed rain we have been getting all night and all day. We need it so badly. I have been extremely lazy. It was so dark and dreary this morning that I just slept in. I did manage to get it together enough to go to my mom's for lunch. She cooked the turnip greens that I picked yesterday.
I came back home, put on my flannels and grabbed the remote. As soon as I got all comfy on my bed, a call came that my part for my dishwasher was in....so, I had to wait for the repair man. When he left I did a repeat of my preparation for slothfulness and spent the rest of the day sleeping.......well, except for the 15 minutes when I cooked some cookies....JUST WHAT I NEEDED!
At 10 this morning I had a coffee to go to at my next door neighbor's house. Unfortunately, for me at least, all she had was sweets. I cannot eat sweets that early in the day due to blood sugar issues. Rather than be rude, I ate a couple of small pieces and drank sugared spiced tea. After that social event, I went and found my cousin, who is visiting from Virginia, and we went to lunch. After that she brought her mother down to see my mom and dad. I was at Mom and Dad's picking turnip greens so Mom can cook them tomorrow. After that we all met at a restaurant for dinner, then I took Mom and Dad back to their house and I got home at 7P.M. Long, long day and I am FULL!!!
There's a TV show on HGTV named "I want that!" While I was out yesterday, I went to a Christmas store and found exactly what I want for my yard. It's a little pricey, so I don't know if I will spring for it or not. I have NO....ZERO.....NADA Christmas decorations, so I'm not sure how I will handle decorating for Christmas. I bought a big lighted hologram type thingy that says "Happy Holidays" that I am going to put on my privacy fence. I don't like it to say that, but I could not find anything big that said "Merry Christmas". I guess it's just a sign of the times.....unfortunately!! Here's the one I am comtemplating for the yard. It is animated. He takes his hat off.
