3 dry months

Hello, after more than 3 months. Am I going to keep this up? Maybe. Maybe not. I'm gonna try. Have I said that before? ;-)

Here's a pic of our newest pet ~ this is Gracie, and she's wearing her OSU shirt. Another miniature "weenie". Not a very good pic, but it's hard to catch her standing still. She's from the Parkersburg, WV, puppy mill that had over 1,000 dogs is very poor conditions. Our Capital Area humane Society got 25 of them, and since these are purebred dogs, they held a lottery to see who got them. Over 100 people put in applications, and we were one of the lucky 25. She's 3 years old, and very small. Our other 2 dogs are supposed to be miniatures, but we don't think they are. They're not real big, but they're nowhere as small as she is. But she is very affectionate, loves Bud and Dusty, and is pretty much potty trained. A few accidents. But she's fitting in very well here.

We're gearing up for Christmas. I did some Christmas shopping yesterday....all of it at Best Buy. Found almost everything except a video game that I'll check for at WalMart and Meijer, and if they don't have it, I'm sure Amazon will have it. Marco already got himself a Christmas present.....more about THAT later.......

Marco is completely re-doing my Zen Room. Scott came over Sunday and painted it for us. After we tore up the old yucky carpet, Marco moved wires, and televisions and computers and phones will be moved around. The hardwood flooring is great, and we have no carpet left in the house. Just the oriental rugs in the dining area and the great room. I'm going to find a small oval one for in the Zen Room. The ones we have now are red - see pic above - but I'm going to get one with greys, blues and whatever when I go shopping for one. After all, it's a ZEN room, and has to be more soothing.

That's about it for today. No other big news actually. I don't want to overdo today if I'm going to be back tomorrow or the next day. Probably won't try to blog every single day. I'm retired for heavens sake. LOL

You stay warm Columbus.

Rain, rain, and more rain

Just posted a pic of my Amazons, Sunny and Baby, for the heck of it. We're not sure when their exact birthdays are, so the parrot forum I belong to has created a "hatchday" list so everyone's birds get recognition. Sunny and Baby were recognized in June, even tho' I suspect they were probably hatched a little earlier in the spring. I just picked June for them. They don't care, and neither do I. I enjoy them no matter what. One of the ladies in the forum makes up the pretty little cards for them. I need to find time to experiment with things like that. I know so many people who make neat graphics, siggies and videos. I'm sadly behind when it comes to things like that. Maybe when the toilet business slows down.

Marco is busy all weekend here in town with the gay Pride festival. They ordered 60 toilets, set up along the parade route, and then down at Bicentennial Park where the partying is. He just ran downtown again after dinner, to check and see if his 2 employees are on the job. They expect 15,000 attendees. Columbus has stuff going on almost every weekend in the summer. The next festival is the Rib Fest, and Marco only has to take 6 of the big trailers, not individual potties. Easier. It's amazing with all the rain we've had....really super thunder and lightening storms....that nothing has been rained out.

I heard on the news - just caught the tail end of some story - anyhow, something about gas will hit $7.00 a gallon before very long. I just can't imagine. I put $60 worth of gas in my tank, and it didn't fill it up. I don't think Marco has ever filled up his Trailblazer. I know that thing would take well over $100 on a fillup. When I took Sunny to the vet for her checkup, I passed a new cycle lot over on Main Street. I didn't get a real good look at the cycles, but they weren't motor cycles, and they weren't exactly motor scooters either. I guess more like souped up motor scooters. They didn't look like they had a very big engine. But whatever they were, they had every color under the rainbow. New and exciting, and probably will do well. If I were a little younger, I'll check into them. I see more and more cyclers on the road all the time. Several in our neighborhood.

I haven't checked on the fish today. They probably need their filter cleaned out, and some food before it gets dark. Guess I'll take care of that since dad is downtown checking potties.

You stay cool Columbus.

Barb

Ghosts and such

This is my cool pitcher plant. It's carniverous...those pitchers are always full of dead flies. I paid $20 for it; a friend mentioned that they grow wild down where she lives in Florida. Just threw it in, as I have no pictures of ghosts.....

There was an article in the paper recently about the Ghost Train that carried Lincoln's body back to Illinois for burial. According to legend, in April the ghost of Lincoln's funeral train appears on the tracks in Urbana Ohio, where the train paused for fifteen minutes while crowds watched and paid their last respects. People have felt it pass them - felt the rush of hot air, and some have seen a phantom light down the tracks. Some people have seen the actual train, with a crew of grinning skeletons on it. Clocks in the area stop while it passes, and lose 5 or 10 minutes of time. Apparently this year, a history class from Urbana College watched for it, but missed out on actually seeing anything. I was disappointed, as I'm sure they were.

This jogged my memory and reminded me of a friend of mine who has a son in his mid 20's who bought a house last year out in the country east of Columbus. Kyle was recently divorced after a short marriage, and had a friend living with him for a while to share expenses. I forget who first noticed that they had a ghost. It wasn't too long after they moved in. As with other houses that have been empty for a while, it needed cleaned up. Kyle's friend really worked on the windows, and had them sparkling. It was only a day or two later that they noticed a child's handprints on a couple of the windows. On the inside. And no children had been in the house. They cleaned them off, puzzled. And a week or so later, more handprints. Small ones. Then one day, the room mate came home from work, and in passing Kyle's bedroom saw a small girl sitting on Kyle's bed. I guess he flew out of the house, scared to death, and went to his mom and dad's house till Kyle got back home. There have been other instances where someone has seen the child.....usually out of the corner of their eye. Once at a party at Kyle's house, so they have other witnesses. I guess they've learned to live with it. Things were still a little up in the air when I last talked to Cindy. Again, the medical "issues" (I hate that word, actually, but it fits) I had the past 6 months have intruded on a lot of areas. I really need to call Cindy and see what has transpired. I'll let you know after I talk to her......

So....do I believe in ghosts? I do. And I've read where 51% of Americans believe in them, too. I'll also let you know if I ever see one!

Isn't this a cool graphic? I love Tim Horton coffee, and have it almost everyday. The price of coffee is shameful, but isn't everything these days? I consider it money well spent. Good for the soul and all that.

For my far-flung family members and friends, you probably don't know about the part time jobs that Marco and I have. Briefly, a friend of his that has a whole empire of businesses, bought a porta john company and needed someone to get it rolling and coordinate it. Someone who could light a fire under $10 an hour employees, and all that. Well, Marco took on the job, and lured me in to help in the office. I do site management, routing and billing. A bit much for part time, but hey, it's fairly seasonal, too. I was working 4 days a week till this week. There have been days that I've had to take off for my mom's doctors appointments. But now I'm just working on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. "Just". Sigh......

Since I'm a little focused on blood pressure, due to mine freaking out on me a few months back, I'll mention 2 alternative therapies that I've tried. First, I tried acupuncture. I only had 2 sessions of that. I just happen to believe that if you spend $60 for a session, you should see results after a couple of them. I didn't. Also, it was more uncomfortable that I thought. The second time, a needle really hurt my wrist, and the acupuncturist had disappeared. He came back about 20 minutes later with a cup of Starbucks coffee in his hand. Jerk. Rather than mess around with more sessions, I tried cranial-sacral therapy. Rather than explain it, if you're really interested in it at all you can Google it. Better explanation there than I can give anyhow. And this was the interesting thing: Even thought the therapist only touches you lightly, it's the intent of the therapist that is what is healing. And it worked. After the session, I went home and took my blood pressure, and it had dropped a whole lot. It was during a stressful week, and not only did the b/p get lower, it stayed lower for days. And for me, that's good. My b/p still jumps around. It was real high during a bad day about 2 weeks ago, and I took an extra 1/2 pill after dinner, and took a reading before bed, and it was 92/48. So I have to watch out. I kinda feel like I'll deflate or something.

But I'm surviving, and doing okay. My family, parrots, and dogs keep me busy. My African Grey parrot - MaggyMay - has survived heart problems for 15 months now, and seems to be doing okay also. Our older weenie dog - Buddy - is on thyroid medication and "light" dog food. Poor guy. He's only 8 now, but seems older.

Anyone who has waded thru this boring blog - my hat is off to you. Right now it's just catharsis. Hopefully, I'll get more interesting.

Love all you guys!

Barb

Just a note...

No pictures or anything for me today. And I have some nice pictures from "Dancing With The Stars" that we attended last week. Scott and Jackie gave us tickets to the show at Christmas, and we had a ball. Such a great show. Wayne Newton looked bizarre of course, but everyone else was great. Cheryl Burke, Edyta, Karina, Sabrina, Dru.....a whole bunch of them. Put on a super show. Hopefully, I'll get them uploaded for you soon. We had 2nd row seats, right in the middle of the stage. :-)

Anyhow, just want to mention that I haven't been feeling my best lately, and have had blood pressure problems mainly, and found out this moring that my EKG looked bad, and they did lots of blood work, and I have to have a stress test and heart cath, and I hope that's IT. I don't want them to have to crack my chest. What a pisser. None of my friends are having any kinds of problems at all, and here I am in bed and looking forward to some crummy stuff. Anyhow, I haven't been blogging like I should lately anyhow, so I may be offline for a bit. Hopefully, I'll be back in the next few days. Depends on what my blood work shows when the doc calls me in about an hour. I'm sure it's not much. "Looks like an electrical problem" the doc said. Whatever.
Will be you soon, take care Columbus.
Gramma Barb

Mr. Gnome

Marco took his gnome to New Orleans. We've had this little guy sitting out on our deck for about 2 years now, but he's never been on vacation till his BCS bowl trip with his "daddy". And probably wouldn't have gone if it weren't for Jennifer gettting a "family gnome" for Christmas, and instructed to take it whenever she goes somewhere during 2008. Then it's turned over to another family member. I guess you could say we snitched their idea, altho' we've seen things like this on television for years. Little statues disappear out of people's yards, and then they get pictures of them from Disney World, and the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas....stuff like that. Too funny.

That's Eric on the left at a VooDoo shop with the gnome, and the gnome attending a pep rally on the right. Marco has tons of pictures of him....crossing state lines, in restaurants, at the camp ground, all kinds of people holding him, and even standing on a urinal.

The only downside is that it's inconvenient hauling Mr. Gnome around. Next trip we'll buy a little carrying thingy for him. But I think he had fun.