Then we went to Kari's on the way to Oklahoma

On our way to Oklahoma, we stopped at Kari and Mark's to see the grandkids. Kari had prepared chili and corn bread and hotdogs. The chili was delicious, but a little spicy for my taste. Dave probably would have eaten more if we weren't going to be cooped up in a car for many, many hours together.

Charly gave us two little stuffed animals when Kari told her to tell us goodbye and that she wouldn't be seeing us for a while. See the next post.

Packing before our move

Mindy and Luke came over on the Saturday before we left for Oklahoma so I could see Luke and to help pack. Luke kept us all busy. Kari also came over to help pack.

I still have to get the pictures to post

Well, the pictures are still in my camera. I know, it isn't that difficult to take the memory card out of the camera and upload to the computer, but right now it seems like a lot. I promise I will get to it. Probably tomorrow, but don't hold me to it.

It has been a nice day. Dave had the day off so we could hang out together. We went to breakfast and then drove around Enid checking out the sites. Dave tried to find the spots that his editor showed him, but it took us a while.

We also checked out an Italian restaurant to see if their pizza was good. It was pretty good.

We then came home and rearranged the living room and emptied a box or two.

I have a list of positives about Enid and the new apartment:

• Almost unlimited garbage bin.
• Drains that drain faster than the house in DH.
• Larger bathroom.
• Malls within 2 minutes of apartment.
• Warmer weather.
• Fireplace in the apartment (probably won't use it, but you never know)

Oklahoma move part 2

Well, we are here. I wanted to blog sooner than this, but it has been crazy. I have pictures to post and stories to tell. So much to say, so little time to get it all said.

A quick recap: We had everything packed by 10 a.m. on Friday. The guys who were going to load the truck for us came about 20 minutes later. Mike came about 10:10 or so. He was a wonderful help. Then Dad and Uncle Tom came so Dave could go with them to take their car to the airport parking. By the time the got back from the airport, the truck was loaded. Mike left for Lansing with the couch and loveseat and we all went to the UHaul place to get the autotransporter attached to the truck and the Hyundai on the autotransporter. Then Dad and Uncle Tom took off for Oklahoma. Dave and I went back to the house to finish closing it up and then we were on our way. We arrived in Oklahoma on Saturday evening. The moving men to unload the truck came Sunday morning. Dad and Les flew back to cold Detroit Sunday evening. We unpacked most of Monday. Tuesday we went to work, me to my take-a-long job and Dave to his new job.

I will be filling in the blanks in future posts. The stopover at Kari and Mark's, the fall I took on my front porch, the misadventures of Les and Tom and all the aches and pains that have accompanied the move.

Oklahoma move

We have made one of the first steps to moving to Oklahoma. We found an apartment complex that has an available apartment. This complex, Seven Pines Village owned by ERA Nicholas Real Estate, will have a house available for rent in February and they have many homes for sale which if we decide to rent or buy, they will release us from the lease on the apartment. The apartment is a 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment for a 6-month lease of $475 a month. You can see pictures of the place at the link above.

Now we need to figure out how we are going to move and sell or rent our house here in Dearborn Heights.

Go West Ruthenbergs

Looks like we will be moving to Enid, Oklahoma. Dave has been offered a job there at the Enid News and will be starting November 25. I will be moving down there as soon as I can. I have to sell the house (or rent it) and pack everything up. I might be contacting family members to see if they want some of our furniture so we don't have to take everything.

More to follow.

Poem by my Grandfather, Willis McMillan

My dad, Jerry McMillan, gave my sister a poem that his dad, Willis McMillan, wrote. Cindi sent it to me. I would like to share it here.

Those Golden Years
By: Willis McMillan

Some fifty years ago
When my heart was all aglow
I met a little girl named Lucille.
She was so neat, with much eye appeal.
She lived with her sister, mother, and father on a hill
In a little town called Waynesville.
At church and socials she played the piano,
And very popular as you all may know.
On Sundays and holidays, rides we would take
In her father’s new Model T.
They asked me to go along for company’s sake
And that made me as proud as could be.
Four sons was all we had –
Wendell, Gerald, Irwin, and Richard Eugene.
They all were healthy fine lads.
That made six of us on the team.
When brother Dillon lost his mate,
Lenora and Jo Ann we did take.
We loved them like they were our own,
And we all tried to give them a happy home.
In 1942, Lucille not feeling her best,
We moved to Cincinnati for a rest.
Our four sons in the service for U. S. A.
Thank God, all safe home, we did pray.
Wendell, Martha; Jerry, Gerry Ellen; Dick and Pat –
All found homes with a welcome mat.
Grand children: we’ll say seven.
All good children go to heaven.
Linda, Tommy, Debbie, Cindy, Mike,
Dale and Timmy;
All together that’s a good many.
Oh, yes, one great-grandchild.
Right now that’s putting it mild.
Now Johnny in February 1964 died.
Then at that time all of us cried.
Mom was my secretary and kept the money.
She from the start was my honey.
Wonderful golden years together liven.
And I thank God for all blessings given.

What Brett and I do for fun on the weekend

Brett and I were taking pictures of the Western Michigan vs Eastern Michigan football game today. If you want to see the actual action pictures check out www.macreportonline.com/mrogallery tomorrow. We should have all the pictures up by then.





I caught Brett walking back to my side of the field.













Then I accidentally got a slightly blurry pic of him from across the field.

Brett caught a pic of me in the background of a play from across the field

More pictures from the visit

Mindy talking to Grandpa Ken.









Kari took these pictures of the cousins getting into things.








They are pretty darn cute.









Everyone loves to make some music.








Kari and Aydan.

Grandpa Morris visit

My stepdad isn't feeling real good, so we all went to visit him. Here are some pictures.



Charly took this wonderful picture of me and Aydan.









Mike and Luke are so cute together.








Kari and Aydan








Charly was entertaining Grandpa Ken's sister, Joann.








Grandpa Ken enjoyed the visit, I think.

short story - Whose favor should she be in?

The couple was leaving the grocery store. The husband was pushing the cart and the wife was following behind. As they reached the door, an item fell out of the cart of another shopper. The wife stopped to pick up the item for the other shopper, unbeknownst to the husband. As he leaves the store, he turns back to see that his wife is not following as closely behind him and he lifts his eyebrows as if to say "What happened?". His wife replies, "I stopped to help someone pick up something they dropped." Her husband shakes his head in dismay. He is single minded in his need to get out of the store where everyone gets in his way and his need to get home to relax. "I am just trying to find favor with the gods", his wife states. "Well, you are losing favor with me", he tosses back. They both smile. He knows he is intolerant, and she knows that he knows. It is just the way he is. At least he can laugh about his intolerance. She loves him anyway.

Did you watch the Obama tv show tonight? I DID NOT

I am proud to say that I did not watch the Obama paid television show tonight. Where does he get the money for this? I am leery of a person who has sooooo much money that they can pay for primetime television for 30 minutes on seven different networks.

Luckily cable and satellite have hundreds of other networks. Too bad he doesn't have enough money to buy time on every network. For someone who wants the "little people" to feel he knows what they are going through, he sure knows how to flaunt his money.

Biden interview shows his true colors

Interesting YouTube video.


I guess after Biden was interviewed on this Florida TV station, his wife was supposed to be interviewed, but Obama's campaign nixed that idea with this statement:

"This cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election," wrote Laura K. McGinnis, Central Florida communications director for the Obama campaign.
McGinnis said the Biden cancellation was "a result of her husband's experience yesterday during the satellite interview with Barbara West."

miss fixit

Dave hates it when I do this, but I still keep doing it and I think secretly he likes it.

This is what happened: Dave wanted to get a bound double-sided copy of the MAC Football Preview to take with him on his job interview. So we went to Office Depot to get the file printed on nice paper and bound with spiral coils. The Office Depot worker was having problems getting the printer to duplex the test pages. It kept jamming up in the printer. I first suggested that maybe since the first page was one large graphic that we needed to try printing the second and third pages on front and back. The paper still jammed. So I suggested that there might be a small piece of paper in the roller. Dave was cringing. He hates when I butt in. But the worker was a smart young man and listened to me and found the offending small piece of paper in the rollers of the printer and the next try worked perfectly. We now have a nice 37 page bound copy of the football preview that he is so proud of.

Yep, my 56 years on this earth, 20 some of it working in an office with many printers, copiers, and computers, has given me wisdom that I love to share with others.

Oh, what else was funny was that Dave made a reference to something that Bender says in Futurama, "It is all everyone else's fault" The Office Depot young man, looked up at him and said, "What? Bender from Futurama?" He seemed impressed that Dave would be quoting from Futurama. Score one for Dave.

joe the plumber

I might be in the minority, but I think John McCain kicked butt last night. Sure there were some discrepancies in both of their statements, but I thought Obama was clearly bugged by how much McCain was on the offensive.

Now, this thing about Joe the Plumber. This is really bugging me. I liked the fact that McCain brought up the incident between Joe and Obama, but the media is taking it way too far. Why is the media crucifying him? He just wanted to ask a simple question. Now people are digging up all kinds of things on him.

Is this what will happen if Obama becomes president? If someone has a differing opinion or questions something the president does, will they be scrutinized and dissected and hounded?

my leaky faucet is fixed!!

My dad has been staying with my sister and she had a meeting to attend today in Pontiac. Cindi brought my dad over and dropped him off and he fixed my leaky faucet. I can't tell you how thankful I am, plus I got to spend more time with Dad and with Cindi. We went out to eat after Cindi was done with her meeting.

All in all it was a nice day.

Thanks Cindi and Thanks Dad.

body aches

I know that I am out of shape. I don't want people trying to be encouraging. I know that my loved ones will love me even if I am out of shape. I am the only one who can make me feel better and for some reason I haven't found the motivation that I need.

You would think that I would want to exercise more so that I wouldn't hurt so bad when I try to do things. I think the problem stems from the fact that I am addicted to my job and the computer. Both of those are not conducive to moving around and exercising. I mean if I had a job where I had to move to actually perform the job, that would be better for me, I guess.

My latest problem with aches and pains stems from two things. A football game and cleaning the cars. Yesterday I walked down to the field at Eastern Michigan from the press box. Now, this should be easy, but for me who is top heavy and out of shape, it is scary. There are no handrails, so I feel like I am going to go head first down the steps. Plus the fact that my left knee hurts, so I have to go down the steps kind of sideways so that my left knee doesn't give out. Well, that made my right thigh cramp up when I finally was on the field. Today it just feels like a deep bruise. But I must of used other muscles also because I was very achy.

But then today I really wanted to get to my projects that I have planned. Cleaning the cars has been on my list for awhile. Not the outside - Dave can take the cars to the car wash for that, but the inside, vacuum and dust. The cars weren't as bad as I thought they were, but it took a lot of bending and pulling and stuff. Plus the garage had to be cleaned up a little so that I could clean the Santa Fe. I did get them all done. But boy, am I beat.

More projects to come:
Clean windows, especially the front windows.
Sweep garage, take cushions to basement, take golf clubs to basement also.
Plant tulip bulbs and clean up yard. Possibly trim bushes one more time.
Clean and organize office closet.
Organize kitchen closet.

I will keep you all posted on how this all goes.

MAC Football Week Five Preview

Probably the biggest celebrity alum to come out of Ball State, late-night host David Letterman, gave some publicity to his alma mater's team recently, talking up the Cardinals' win over Indiana on his CBS show. Can an appearance from Brady Hoke on the show be far behind?

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What I did today

Dave didn't have anything planned as far as football games, so he was going to watch all the games on TV. I thought I would try to get things done that I have been putting off. Here is my list:

Fix leaky bathtub faucet
Clean both cars (vacuum and dust)
Give blood
Do the grocery shopping
Finish the final touches on the manuscript that I am editing for someone.

So far I have only done the "give blood", grocery shopping, and I am working on the manuscript.

The give blood made me really tired. I hope to do some of the other things tomorrow.

I like to give blood, I feel righteous about it, plus I am O negative which means they really like by blood, but boy I am so tired from it. I think I have blogged about this before. Oh well.

Grandpa McMillan

Grandpa McMillan came up to Michigan just before the first hurricane and came to visit me on Friday. On Sunday all the kids and their kids converged on Mindy and Mike to hang out for a few hours. This picture is missing the husbands of Mindy and Kari (Mike and Mark) and me.

freezer kitten

Dave and I and my dad went over to Les and Joannie's last night to chat for a bit and introduce them to my dad. When we got there, they mentioned that they couldn't find one of their two kittens. They said they looked everywhere, but couldn't find the little fella.

Well, we all sat down and started chatting and then Joannie asked us if we wanted anything to drink. Dave got up to go to the refrigerator to get a pop. When he opened the door, he hollared, "The cat is in the refrigerator!"

The kitten had crawled into the refrigerator when Joannie had put some pops in the refrigerator and she didn't see him.

He probably was in there only a little bit and didn't seem fazed at all. He wasn't even cold. Crazy kitten.

one reason I like cornergas - witty repartee

Brent, the gas station owner has a scheme to find out how tall Wanda, his employee, is. He elicits the help of Hank the handyman/loafer that hangs out at the gas station and the cafe. When the plan doesn't work, because Wanda tricks Hank, Brent says: "Why do I even involve you in my schemes?"
Hank replied thoughtfully: "Maybe you are afraid of success on some level."

Don't know if it will come across as funny as it did when I heard it in this blog. Maybe you had to be there. But really, that was a classic response.

psycho

We were watching the original Psycho and then Dave flipped to the local news where they were showing a clip of Hillary Clinton giving her DNC speech... but I thought we were still watching Pscyho.

Scary.

If you look real close you can see me

The MAC is running a MAC on TV and I am in there somewhere. Maybe about half way through they are showing pictures of all the people interviewing people at tables. I am in the far back. I will try to get more information if you are interested. LOL

The link below describes the TV schedule for the MAC preview.

http://macreportonline.com/index.php/20080818338/Football/MAC-Gridiron-Preview-Set-to-Air.html

New additions to the Les and Joanne family

Les and Joanne have new additions to their family. Ollie and Stanley are Maine coon kittens.
I believe Ollie is the lighter colored kitten and Stanley is the darker one.


I think this is Ollie.
And this should be Stanley, unless I have them confused.

Steven Banks/Olympics

Every time I hear the olympics theme, I think of Steven Banks. My kids will understand.

I want control of the TV control

Dave has control of the TV control and he keeps checking back to the Olympic coverage. Each time they start a little human interest on Dara the swimmer he flips back to something else. It has happened twice. I guess I will never find out her "story".

Random acts of kindness, part 2

I have to preface this blog with mentioning that I am fine, I did not get mugged, robbed, or raped while committing a random act of kindness. I say this for Dave's benefit because he thinks I am way too trusting.

What happened was that I had to run some errands after work. I went to Walgreens and then was headed back west toward the grocery store. The street is a four lane street and I was in the far right lane. Up ahead I saw a car that either seemed to be going very slow or was stopped. As I got closer I realized that the car was stopped (there is no stopping/parking on this street) and I was going to have to get into the other lane - fast. I was worried about this car sitting there, as most cars on this street go faster than the posted 40 miles and it is not always easy to pull into the left lane. Should I call the police and let them know an abandoned car is on Joy Road? No, I don't have the number. I guess I could have dialed 911, and I was considering that as I pulled into the grocery store parking lot. As I parked, I noticed a man and a woman head back down the street walking as fast as they could, carrying.....yes, a gas can! I pulled out of my parking spot and drove over to them, honked my horn and waved them over. I asked if they were going back to the car stopped in the street. Yes, they were. Hop in, I said. The woman got in the front and the man in the back with the gas can, and I carefully pealed out to get back to the car as fast and carefully as I could. It was 0.2 miles back down the road and luckily no one had crashed into it. Did I mention that the emergency flashers were not on? Yikes. As I pulled up behind the car and put my flashers on, the lady asked me how much she owed me. I laughed. Sorry I did. I never even thought of charging them to drive them 0.2 miles. Crazy. I assured her that she didn't owe me anything and in fact, I was going to stay behind them with my flashers on while they put the gas in the car and then drive off. Which is what happened.

Wow, what a good feeling that gave me. Not only do I feel like I helped those two people, but probably some poor person who would have hit that care while coming home from work and not really paying attention to the traffic.

Letter to Barack Obama

July 31, 2008



Dear Mr. Obama,

You don't need to keep playing the race card. You are a human being. It doesn't matter what color you are. I don't care whether you or anyone else is black, white, or green. I just want to know that you would have the ability to lead the USA. I don't see where you would be able to do that if you are constantly worrying about whether someone is picking on you because you are black. Sheesh. Grow up.

Deb Ruthenberg
Dearborn Heights, MI

The Sartorial Splendor of Football Media Days

My editor's assignment was simple: Participate in the MAC media football day at Ford Field in Detroit, taking on the task of a sports reporter and asking questions to find out more information about the football teams across the Mid-American Conference.

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More pictures from this weekend

Dave is caught playing with grandkids.

Weekend fun

Kari, Mark, Aydan and Charley came over to visit. We checked out the Telegraph Cruise. We saw a lot of fancy classic cars and listened to a rock 'n roll band. Charley danced. She is so active. Wish I had all her energy.

Violent women

The Shock (women's basketball) in Detroit just went crazy and started fighting with the other team they were playing. At the start of the fight, one Shock player walked up to another player and just walked her down. The cat fight was on.

When did women stop being demure, refined, and lose their dignity? I think I know when and where. Reality TV. The Soup did a show called "Chicks, Man" and it highlighted the reality shows like Bad Girls, Keeping up with the Kardashians, and Rock of Love, to name a few. Reality shows ask that women act stupid, get drunk and disgusting, vomit, eat gross things, cry, get angry at the drop of the hat, dress like skanks, and pretty much degrade themselves in any way they can. No wonder the women of Shock allowed their emotions to get the better of themselves and start a fight during the game. They are acting just the way they think that society wants to see them act.

Whatever happen to depicting women as nurturing, loving humans? Is this a sick way for men to feel better about themselves? Have they been feeling like women have been demasculating them on TV and so they want to humiliate women on TV?

Why are women allowing this? This is disgraceful. I encourage women everywhere to NOT WATCH shows that depict women in this horrible way. Do not allow your young ladies to watch. Entice your significant other to not watch these shows. Boycott the shows. Soon they will disappear if we do not watch and do not give credence to these types of stereotypes.

dancing conure

Riley groovin' to the blues

weekend update

Well, since I enjoyed reading Kari's account of her weekend, I thought I would write about my weekend.

Saturday we got quite a bit done. First we took the Focus into Midas to get the brakes looked at. Then we went to Bob Evans to eat breakfast, our weekly ritual to get out of the house. Then we came home to wait to hear the bad news about the car. While at home I worked on the computer a bit. Found that we might be able to "sell" the ebook on Amazon published as a Kinele book, but I will have to reformat it.

The car needed new shoes, rotors, and two link pins. Oh my. Oh well. Had to be done. So we authorized the work to be done. They said probably it would be ready around 1 p.m. Dave and I decided we needed to get out and move around a bit, but since the car with the Metropark sticker was getting fix. So we went to Farmington to their Founders Day celebration. Did a lot of walking and looking. Saw a man dressed all in gold, acting like a statue, tipped his hat when we walked by. Wow - he was good. I thought he was a statue.

Then we came back to get the car.

I then made pork chops with gravy, low calorie. Very good. I recommend them. I am having fun making all these new low calorie recipes. It gives me ideas for more or at least how to modify them so that we like them even better.

Sunday morning comes.....we hang out for a bit. I decide to start the laundry I needed to do. Then I wanted to shorten the curtains in our bedroom. That didn't take too long. By the time I was done, Dave was ready to get out and do more sight seeing. We went to Royal Oak's largest garage sale. It was a garage sale that was in a parking garage. It was huge. Nothing there caught our eye. Lots of junk.

Last stop was Como's for pizza. Then home to vegetate in front of the TV and computers. I did little things like changing the bed sheets and wash towels.

Healthy appetizers

Dave has been giving me suggestions for food to fix for him and I that is lowfat, low calorie, or both.

This is one that I made that I recommend:

From the Healthy Living magazine.

Mini Bacon Quiches
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 pound sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup reduced-fat ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Dash cayenne pepper
Dash pepper
2 packages (2.1 oz each) frozen miniature phyllo (fillo) tart shells

1. In a small bowl, combine the first nine ingredients. Place tart shells on an ungreased baking sheet; fill each with 2 teaspoons mixture.
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until filling is set and shells are lightly browned. Serve warm.

They were good cool also.

MAC Facilities Begin Upgrades

With kickoff of the 2008 football season just six weeks away, Mid-American Conference fans will no doubt notice upgrades at a couple of venerable facilities while fans in another MAC city will be celebrating the final season in their school's home stadium.

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will they answer my question?

I emailed Rod and Mario with the FSN Detroit website asking them a question and they are suppose to answer it on an upcoming Tigers Live game. Will they answer it today? We shall see. The question I asked was: Do the Tigers still do all those fancy-dancy hi-fives they used to do when they hit a homerun and then went to the dugout?

Silly question, but I remember they used to have some very elaborate hi-fives with each other. Choregraphed perfectly. Maybe they will look up old film footage of them and replay them.

so I thought the ebook was all done......

My sigh of relief changed today. Dave was going through the ebook and found that the team schedules had either changed or there was minor errors. So........I had to log into my laptop, go back into the Word document, make the changes, then convert to a pdf file, then upload to the website again.

Okay, done. I can get back to work.

But wait, I forgot to reset the bookmarks in the pdf file. So had to spend time setting up the bookmarks and then upload to the website.

Whew, all done.

Right?

Wrong.

Dave and I were suppose to start working out in the yard in the evenings this week so that we could get caught up on that. Dave started early, but came in when I was done with work and he sheepishly told me that there were more corrections that he found in the pdf.

So while cooking supper, I made the changes in the Word document, converted to pdf and showed Dave how to do the bookmarks in the pdf program. Once the bookmarks were done, I uploaded the files to the website and we were done.

Right.

So we went outside to finish work in the yard. We sweated and got dirty. For two couch potatoes we did pretty good. Dave got a whole section of the driveway weed free and I weeded and then put stuff down to keep the weeds at bay behind the garage where the three bushes are. It felt good to get it done. There is still more to do in the yard, but we will get it done this week. I also have to clean the house. Will get that done also. The bathtub was cleaned yesterday.

Then Dave checked the pdf file again. Yep, one more correction. This one I was able to fix right in the pdf file, so that was quick.

I hope Dave doesn't find any more corrections.

The ebook link is on this blog and I encourage anyone that wants to find out all the inside information about college football for this season - specifically the Mid-American Conference - then buy this ebook. You will be one step ahead of the game.

Finally finished Dave's ebook

Dave has been working hard on an ebook for a football preview of the Mid-American Conference. In the past when he has done this, he hasn't charged for the document, but he put so much work into it and so did I that we wanted to get something for the hard work. Well, I think we have it mostly done and I can breath a sigh of relief. The ebook will go on sale on July 2 and I will put a link to the store as soon as it is up so that all my family and friends can go there and buy it if they feel like it. It will be $4.95 and you can use either a credit card or paypal. I set up the store, set up the website, made graphics so that others can advertise the book on their websites. Dave is getting the advertising for the book out with google adwords and other people's website.

If any one wants to advertise the book on their website, please let me know (Mindy).

having fun at the CVS

So, since I work from home I don't get out much. Saturdays are my day to get out all by myself. Crazy, I know. I usually go to the grocery store, but sometimes I get a manicure and today I had my hair trimmed. But I also went CVS to get Father's Day cards and such. Well, the line was long and only one register open. When a second register opened, I noticed that the people getting in line were confused about where to go, so I decided to direct traffic. So with a smile on my face and lightness in my tone, I started telling people where the end of the line was, pointing out the next in line so that person could go to the second open register.

Then a gentleman in line behind me asked me if I knew if CVS gave rainchecks because he wanted to get one for the Arizona tea that was on sale, but they had run out of. I hollered out to one of the cashiers asking that very question. The answer was yes, so the gentleman stayed in line.

It is funny....the cashiers seem grumpy and hassled... but when I started my joking and stuff, they seemed to perk up and one of them even smiled. It was fun.

old memories

I had this for breakfast: Hard crunchy bread (brownberry will do), butter, jam, olives, cheese.

Every time I eat this type of meal, I am reminded of a trip to Israel. But the memories are very fragmented.

• The hot sun - so bright it hurt your eyes
• hail stones lying at the base of an orange tree with oranges already on the tree.
• Old Jerusalum - crowded, dirty, smelly, clothing hanging for sale, dead animals hanging for sale.
• Not wanting to pay to see the Dead Sea, but needing to use the restroom - a group of us girls led by Marian Selleck chose to go behind the building and relieve ourselves. She was such a rebel.
• bumpy bus rides
• The beautiful color of the mosques
• The head-bobbing, sing-song people at the wailing wall.

That is about all I can really remember. I wish I had the pictures from that trip, but I think I gave them all to Jerry.

June 1, 2008 - Jenna's Baby Shower

Last weekend, Mindy, Kari and I all traveled to Grand Rapids for my neice and nephew's baby shower. Jenna and Japhy will be parents soon and my sister will be a grandmother. Such fun. Here are some pictures that I took.

Sister Cindi and Aydan

Mindy, Luke, and Charly

Kari, relaxing, finally without a child in hand.

Cindi, Aydan, and Mindy

Mindy and Luke

Charly

Jenna and Japhy opening their gifts.

Some of the guests.

More guests

Japhy's dad Steve and Mike, Cindi's husband.

having a good day today

Thank goodness it is Saturday. Time to get things done and relax if possible. This is how my day has gone so far today. Sleep in past 8:00 a.m. (8:07?) Take a shower, get dressed. Have my chauffeur (Dave) drive me to Bob Evans where we consumed a good, but cheap breakfast. I had grits and a side of bacon. Then we came home to decide what we would do next. We opted for driving to the Erie Metro Park to hike the nature trail. We chose the 1 mile loop. We did that twice. I was completely worn out from that. On the drive home we made three stops. One to get a candy bar for me. Two to buy some hanging plants to put on our light post out front. Three, BabiesRus so that I could pick up a gift for the baby shower that I am going to tomorrow. Oh, and Dave stopped at the gas station to fill my tank for tomorrow. (Lordy gas is costly.)

Then when we got home, I went back out. First went to the farmer's market up the street and got two medium onions, one large zucchini, two parsnips, a bunch of bananas, 6 ears of corn, two plums, two oranges, one pink grapefruit ($5.81). I am going to keep going back there to get different vegetables. See if I can get more vegetables and fruit into our diet. Riley will eat some also.

Then I went to get a pedicure and manicure. It was relaxing.

Finally I did the grocery shopping. I think I forgot somethings. I need to make a better list.

Now Dave and I are watching the Wings hockey game. Hopefully they will win.

Tomorrow should be a nice day. Going to my sister's house. She is having a baby shower for her son and his wife. Kari will be there with her two kids and Mindy will be riding with me and bringing Luke. It will be fun.

colorful blog design

My eccentric daughter very kindly allowed me to redesign her blog. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I had a good time choosing the colors, working with her to get the right fonts, etc. Needless to say, Mindy is a tough client. She had very definite ideas and that was refreshing. I like to work with people who know what they want and can communicate it.

So if you like Mindy's blog and want to see more, check back and see what I do with my blog. Also, I am available for hire if you want to spice up your blog.

eye twitching - update

I think I blogged about this. My right eye has been twitching. It started about a month ago and for a week it was kind of driving me crazy. Well, it had just about completely stopped twitching until yesterday. Yesterday, Formulawn came to fertilize the grass. (By the way, the yard is looking good, grass nice and green, healthy, and no weeds.) Well, they knocked on the door to ask me if we wanted the grub control, since it didn't look like it needed it. (We had put some grub control on last fall and maybe that helped.) They were spraying the lawn while they were talking to me. The smell was not very pleasant. I quickly went into the house and shut the door so that Riley wouldn't breathe the fumes.

Well, my eye started twitching. Now today my back and head are itching. My eye is still twitching. I just took some Zyrtec so hopefully the itching will go away.

Dave's comment on Dancing with the Stars

We are trying out this new website design. Dave was working on the website, checking out how the articles and pictures were uploaded. He was watching Dancing with the Stars with me, in between flipping back and forth to the Wings hockey game. I was checking out the website design on my laptop whenever he switched to the game. I checked it one last time and noticed the change he had made. (Headline and caption under picture - click on image for larger picture). He thinks he is so funny. It did crack me up because it was so unexpected.

lifestyle change - ongoing

Dave and I are still working on our weight loss. It is frustrating because we have drastically reduced our intake and have been walking just about every day, and we are not seeing a lot of results. Don't get me wrong, we won't give up. But it does get discouraging.

perfect pizza - maybe

This might be my best attempt at homemade pizza. I used a thin crust recipe. The crust was delicious. (click on picture to enlarge and see the crust detail.)

lifestye change - day 11

I am still trying to stick to the lifestyle change. We went on a walk today. Drove to the Lake Erie Metropark. It gets so boring walking around the neighborhood. Plus the sidewalks seem to make my joints hurt more. Walking along the nature trails at the Metroparks really feels so much better, but you sometimes are surprised by wild life. Two deer were scared off by us walking by. I only saw their tail ends, but they made a lot of noise leaving the area. We walked only 1.5 minutes(edited - miles), but it was very relaxing also.

I continue to be hungry for the wrong things. I melted some truffles in the microwave and dipped some pretzels in the melted chocolate so that I could have a chocolatey snack. Don't tell Dave what I did, as I didn't let him know that I did that.

eye twitches

My right eyelid has been twitching. I don't know why, but it is annoying.

Conversation with Dave:

Me: You know every time I say something and you disagree with me, my eye twitches.

Dave: No, your eye twitches every time you are wrong.

Very funny, Dave.

sometimes I have a good idea

Watching the Tigers

Me to Dave: So the psychology of stealing a base is so that it keeps the pitcher's busy thinking of the runner and makes him throw crappy pitches.

Dave: (looking confused) Well, not really. Well, okay, I guess.

Me: Don't you agree?

Dave: (Grudgingly) Yyyyeessss, I just wasn't prepared to let you know that you were right.

baby mama, baby daddy

I HATE those terms. When did we become illiterate? I guess this falls in the category of lol or rolf, but please. We are intelligent people. Why do we have to pick up the lazy speech patterns of people who have not graduated from high school and sell drugs for a living? Why are we copying them. I thought that only people who didn't know any better used these terms, but I heard Harvey Levin on the People's Court use it and there is a movie out that has that title. Disgraceful. Please do not ever use those terms around me.

Lifestyle change - day 9

Well, I was up 1.5 pounds today. That is okay. See, I like to track my weight daily. It gives me a reminder to be careful with my food intake. My daughter has been encouraging me to track my intake with a website like Dave does. But I have tried that in the past. I have tried Weight Watchers and other things and I have noticed that as soon as I impose a number or a limit on myself I want to rebell. I am not sure why this is. It is funny, if I start thinking that I am hungry for a donut and then tell myself, no you can't have it, it isn't on your diet, then I really, really want the donut and like a little child I will whatever I can to get that donut. But, if I say, okay, you can have the donut, but wait a minute, wait an hour, wait until later today, etc, then usually I don't want the donut. Strange, but true. Or I will say to myself (not out loud, that would be crazy, right?) "is there anything else that you would rather have or have instead since you don't have any donuts right here?" " Why yes, I would rather have a piece of toast with cinnamon on it. " Wow, that actually sounds good. I think I will go have some right now.

lifestye change - day 8

wo-wo - 3.5 pounds so far. I know that this will not continue, but I am going to enjoy it.

lifestye change - day 6

I think I did really good today. This is what I had to eat so far. Breakfast: English muffin (butter and jam), lunch: piece of steak, supper: chicken fillets on the grill and rice/pasta dish with taco seasonings, a small cup of 100 calorie tapioca pudding. I haven't had my one pepsi yet today. I had a capuccino and then had 32 oz of water with lemon and sugar added.

Our walk lasted 35 minutes. I tried walking with my dansko work shoes to see if they worked better. My knee didn't hurt as much today, but my right hip did have the stabbing pain in it half way through the walk. I just took two acetametaphin, so I hope my leg pains will get better by bedtime. I do think the pain is a little better than last week.

Dave is doing great. He is counting calories, using a website called Calorie Count. He logs everything he eats and how much exercise he does. He wouldn't get on the scale until yesterday. So, so far he has lost one pound that he knows of. I lost 2 pounds since we started.

I think I will buy some more V8 next time we go to the store so that I can get more vegetables. I have to remember to take my vitamins also. I keep forgetting.

lifestye change - day 5

Another 1/2 pound - 2 pounds total. Walked and worked in the yard. Had two small homemade breakfast burritos, two bacon, low-cal pizza, and a small steak. So still doing pretty good.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Dave and I went to a matinee to see Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It is a documentary by Ben Stein. I really enjoyed it. It was thought provoking, interesting, and enjoyable. I loved having my mind stimulated by this movie. I am going to do more research on the whole debate.

This goes along with the fact that in our colleges you have to be a liberal to be able to speak your mind. I feel so sorry for college students nowadays. It seems they are being shown a lobsided view of the real world. The liberal view.

Anyway, this movie is definitely a movie to see.

lifestye change - day 4

Yippee! I lost another 1/2 pound. But then Dave wanted to go out to breakfast. Well, I had thought I would eat eggs, bacon, and toast, but that was $7.29. The country breakfast that I usually get is 4.79. So I got that, but stopped eating when I was full. Well, maybe a little past full. Dave was even better and got the 2.79 sausage biscuit.

Then we went to see a movie which I will talk about in another blog entry. After that at home we at sandwiches made with tortilla shells, cheese and deli meat. I drank water with lemon and a little sugar in it.

Then I cleaned the garage, did some laundry and scrubbed and washed down the front door mat. It is lying outside in the driveway, getting dried out. Then Dave and I went for a walk. This was a lot longer walk, 35 minutes. My hip and knee joints were hurting pretty bad by the end of the walk.

Now we are going to each eat a fish sandwich. I might have yogurt and granola or popcorn later this evening.

Hopefully we can keep up the good work and not give up.

lifestye change - day 3

Another day of lifestyle change. I didn't lose any more weight. I weigh myself in the mornings. I had the last two toaster strudels, a piece of steak, two hotdogs (with buns), water, coffee and a can of pepsi. Okay, I know. I am lacking in vegetables and a little too high in sugar. I did use sugar substitute in the coffee, though. I probably will have a small can of V8. There is one left in the refrigerator. Hope it is still good. It has been in there a while.

Dave and I went for our walk at 4:30 and increased the distance a little bit. My hips aren't hurting quite as much today. But I might take some acetametaphin before bedtime. Sometimes my joints hurt worse at night and first thing in the morning.

Maybe I will have lost 1/2 a pound in the morning. I hope so.

lifestye change - day 2

I did okay on my lifestyle change today. Lost one pound so far. Went for a walk, same distance. Pain in my hips from walking yesterday and sitting all day today. Probably will lie down on the floor while watching TV part of the night tonight. My body really is complaining about the little extra exercise. Will have to keep moving though. It should get easier.

lifestye change - day 1

Yesterday Dave and I went to the store. Picked up food that we both wanted for our "diets". Today, I drank more water than usual. Yes, Kari, still probably not enough. Dave is watching his calories. I am just trying to eat less, stay away from sweets if at all possible. Then after work Dave and I walked around the block. Not too taxing, but a little work out. Definitely more than we are used to. We will increase the distance a little each day.

Trip to Forbidden Caverns

Instead of just lying around the cabin all day, we try to find an attraction nearby that isn't too touristy or costly. We choose the Forbidden Caverns. It was very interesing. This maze of caverns is privately owned. The temperature is 58 degrees all year long. There is a river running through the caverns. Very clean water, no weeds, fish or anything.











The caverns are made of limestone and I guess a by-product of that is onyx. There is the largest amount of white onyx found in a cave.










In the early 1920s until 1943, the cavern was used to make moonshine.










And the caverns are the sleeping place for very, very small bats.









It was very, very cool.

yearly vacation

Every year we go on vacation - a much needed vacation. Gatlinburg, Tennessee.



This year we are in a beautiful cabin. Soft towels, wi-fi, surround sound theater, beautiful view.

Dave relaxing.

Joanie looking beautiful.

Les relaxing.

gunk in my hair

A couple of days ago, I took a shower and then dried my hair. I must have put vaseline on my hands before I dried my hair, because now my hair has gunk in it. I have been using vaseline to help with my dry skin. I have washed it since then two times and I still have greasy hair in the roots. Guess I just have to keep washing.

Picture of Brett

I just realized that in the previous post there isn't a picture of Brett that looks nice. So I thought I would post a picture.

Birthday dinner - Mindy's birthday

At our latest birthday dinner, we had a little problem taking pictures with the window right behind us. We closed the mini-blinds and that allowed us to take a picture of Mindy, Kari, and Aydan.











But when we took of picture of Brett and I across the table the closed blinds made us be all washed out.









So when we opened the mini-blinds there was too much light for Brett and I.










Meanwhile, Aydan didn't really care for all the silliness.