R.I.P., Dave

I woke up to some very sad news this morning - a coworker from the factory was killed last night in a car wreck. I got to know Dave when I first started in the Production department because he worked on one of the lines that I scheduled. Over the years we chatted mostly about music, especially old school country, and he would always make a comment whenever I wore one of my Tammy Fest t-shirts.

I was off work this week on vacation, but actually thought of Dave a couple of days ago, when Mom brought in some gigantic heads of garlic from the garden. Dave had given us some of the "elephant garlic" as he called it a few years ago, and Mom planted some and just this week she said for me to bring a few heads of garlic to Dave when I got back to work next week.

I guess this bothers me a little more than it normally would because just a few days ago I celebrated "Life Day" and did some reflecting on my wreck 18 years ago. Life is fragile and you can't take it for granted. I know Dave didn't.

Flashback Friday

One day this week during my time off, the 'Rents and I loaded up the car and headed out to the east end to visit one of the first big malls that the city built. We would visit there about twice a year when I was a kid; if I didn't have a meltdown when I went to the dentist (which was just a mile from the mall) Mom and Dad would take me to the mall and buy me an Orange Julius. Only back in the day, the shop wasn't called "Orange Julius" - it was called the "Orange Bar". But I digress. Flash forward to this week's visit to the mall. It's about three times the size as it was back in the day, and I'm very happy to report that you can still get an Orange Juilus there. We tried to remember and keep track, and other than Orange Julius there were only a few other stores that are still in the mall that were there back in the day - Knotts Shoes, Spencer Gifts and J.C. Penneys.

We walked through the mall, and I got an Orange Julius for old time's sake, but it just wasn't the same. Half-way through out walk through the mall, we all three started walking faster so we could hurry up and make it through there and leave. It reminded me once again why I hate malls.

Bike Path Observations

Every morning this week, I've gotten out on the bike path and have ridden in the fairly early moring. All week long I've noticed something bizarre. Every morning that I've ridden, I've noticed condoms out along the bike path - at least two or three. I don't really know what to say about this. I'm glad that the guys are using condoms, but at the same time I'm disturbed that they are using said condoms along my bike path that me and others travel on everyday. I don't even want to know what is going on along the path that I pedal on every day.

Vacation Update

I am happy to report that so far, it's been an awesome, relaxing vacation week. Actually, it's been a busy week so far, but at the same time it's been relaxing just not having to deal with work this week. For the past three days I've been working on my final exam for school, which will be finished up tonight. I've also ridden the bike out on the path as soon as I've gotten up in the mornings before the temp gets too high. It's been awesome riding outdoors, even in the heat and humidity, and it made me remember how much I really enjoy it. Plus, I've gone somewhere every day this week so far, not to mention various daily trips to my fave store WM and our new RiteAid. So actually I've been pretty busy on my vacation week. And the week's not over yet, faithful readers. I plan to relax and go places and have fun until about 10:00 Sunday night when the Monday Morning Dread will hit.

Where Were You When I Needed You?

This time every year, our church sponsors a "Backpack Party" - the church buys a bunch of backpacks and church members take as many as they want and then fill them up according to the school supply list that is inside each backpack. The backpacks are distributed at the Backpac Party a couple of weeks before school starts. It's an awesome community project, and one that my church has sponsored for almost 20 years now. But I digress. We got our backpack on Sunday and read the list of supplies - they were for a 4th grader. I got some of the stuff Sunday afternoon at an awesome sale that Staples was having, and I bought the rest tonight at my favorite neighborhood store, Wal-Mart. Let me retract - I bought all but one item on the list. I still could not find wide-ruled loose-leaf notebook paper at my beloved WM. Instead, I found shelves full of graph paper.

This is of importance because twelve years ago when I was finishing my Bachelor's Degree, I needed graph paper for a few of my classes. I drove all over town until I finally found a graph paper notebook. And just last year, I was tutoring someone in their MicroEconomics class, and we needed graph paper but there was none to be found. I ended up making up a page of the little squares on Excel and printing out a bunch of pages for us to draw our supply and demand curves. If only we could have fast-forwarded to today when I saw two shelves of the graph paper - in both loose-leaf and notebook form.

I don't really need it for my classes in security, but it's good to know that Wal-Mart has plenty of it if I do.

Happy Life Day To Me

In case you can't tell by the heading and by the above picture, today is my Life Day. It's the day I celebrate getting another chance in life - 18 years ago today I was in a head-on car wreck and was almost killed, and in fact some of the doctors thought I might never be able to use my right foot again. Thanks the Lord and to the skill of my orthopedic surgeon Dr. Henry, I'm doing fine today.

The card above was drawn by two of my favorite little people, the son and daughter of a dear friend, who also celebrates his own Life Day in October. I found this card one day last week when I was looking for somethng at my desk. It wasn't a coincidence.

Some might think it's a bit morbid to celebrate on the anniversary of a wreck but I think it's awesome. Each year I do something fun and cool to celebrate life. Today, I rode my bike out in the heat and am going to get back on track with healthier eating. So Happy Life Day To me.

Link Of The Week

It's only the end of July, but the NFL season will be here before you know it. Next month we'll start the pre-season games, and then we'll be in full swing. But before the games start, I know you'll want to get you some cool NFL shirts and other merchandise to show your support for your favorite teams. Just visit http://www.nflshop.com and order your Tennessee Titans merchandise today. I mean, order your favorite NFl team's merchandise today.

Manual Labor At The Compound

From the picture you can clearly see that manual labor was going on at The Compound this morning, and I'm happy to say that my only involvement in the whole manual labor process was that of photographer. In this photo, Mom was getting a quart of canned tomatoes out of the pressure cooker. As of today, she's canned 14 quarts of tomatoes and 14 quarts of green beans.

Please note our very cool Old Cockadoodle hot mat hanging in the background.

Keep up the good work, Mom and Dad. I'm glad that you have the strength and patience for this stuff.

Flashback Friday

Today was vacation eve at work. I'd hoped for an easy day - get everything caught up and maybe even ahead so my coworkers would have an easy week of taking care of my stuff while I was off. If only. It was one of the busiest days that I've had in a few months at work. About an hour before lunch, my mind drifted back to when I was still in elementary or high school, and would be at home right now instead of work, and would be anticipating the coming week's vacation trip.

Back in the day, I would be going over my checklist of things that I wanted to pack, to make doubly sure that everything on my list was in my suitcase and bags. Today, I was going over a checklist to make sure all of my schedules were covered.

I'm sorry to disappoint my memory, but there won't be any big vacation trip next week - just a week at home with hopefully nothing to do or no place to go. I hope it will stay that way.

Quote Of The Week

Overheard by my Mother talking on the phone to a friend who called to tell Mom that her husband left her:

"Life's too short to be with somebody that treats you bad."

That is true on so many levels, Mom - whether it's a spouse or significant other, a situation at work or with a friend or even a relative.

Wednesday Updates

I thank you, faithful readers, for your concern and emails about the meltdown yesterday. I'm doing much, much better today. I will go on record and say that I have the best faithful readers of any blogger out there.

I'm happy to report that the tomatoes are ready to pick daily in the 'Rents' garden. If only the weather would cooperate -- for the past 5 or 6 days now, we've had early morning rain storms that have made the garden muddy so the 'Rents have to wait till unfortunately the heat of the day for the ground to dry out so they can get in and pick. But when they do pick, they're getting tomatoes by the bucket full.

I'm also happy to report that next week is finals week for the current class I'm taking, and I'll be glad to get the final exam over early next week so I can have the rest of the week to goof off, as I am taking the week off. As of now, I have nothing planned except a trip to the zoo with the 'Rents and a couple of lunch dates, and that's the way I want to keep it.

On a less happier note, I'd like to ask a big favor from all of my faithful readers. I'd like for you to say a prayer for little Brooklynn. She's the great-granddaugther of a friend, and she was born a month ago this coming Saturday. She came into this world two months early. She weighed 2 pounds, 13 ounces. She's hanging in there and is fiesty, but just yesterday they discovered she has an infection in her bowel. She's on antibiotics for the next 7-14 days, and if that doesn't work, they'll have to do surgery. Last night they put her on the ventilator, to let her little lungs take a break and have time to get stronger. She's hanging in there, and the doctors are very opitmistic. But please say a prayer for her, and spread the word to your friends and family to add her to their prayer list, too.

What A Feeling

I'm not sure where to begin today's blog entry, faithful readers. My emotions and feelings are all over the map today. For the first time in almost 21 years at my job at ZCO, I actually had a meltdown today at work. Fortunately for my reputation, nobody saw it; it happened at my desk when nobody else was in the cube. I melted down, felt angry, shed a few tears and then got it all back together. But I accomplished a few things during the meltdown.

For starters, I faced an issue head-on and didn't run away from it. I can't say that the issue was resolved but at least I faced it and dealt with it instead of just backing down and running from it. The next lesson I learned was I don't always have to be the strong one and deal with everything. There's over 100 other people in my office that are capable of helping and dealing with issues, too. Another thing I learned is that sometimes there are no answers to the issue or problem. That was probably the most difficult part of in dealing with all of the crap that went on today.

The Squeaking Has Stopped

This afternoon was my annual visit to my eye doctor, and as of about 3:45 this afteroon, I officially feel old - that was when Dr. Parker wrote out the prescription for bifocal glasses. I was hoping to be able to squeak by another year, but the squeaking has stopped. But it's not quite as bad as I'm making it out to be. Dr. Parker said that my vision hadn't changed very much, and told me to keep on using the reader glasses from the drugstore if I only used them occasionally; she said if I noticed I was wearing them more and more when I read, to go ahead and get the new bifocals but until then, she said I should be ok.

I haven't used the readers that much - only when I lay on the bed or sit at the kitchen table and read my school textbooks (which I think the publishers are at fault for trying to cram more tinier words on a page then they used to back in the day. Just saying.). I don't need them for the newspaper or other magazines, and I only use them at work once a month when I have to read a report with tiny sized font. So I think I'm doing pretty good for an old chick. But just in case, Dad picked out a very cool pair of new frames for me for when I do get them. They're a little bit darker than the color of this font and extremely cool.

I'd like to give a shout out to my beloved Dr. Parker and her assistant Terri, who reassured me that I still have the bluest eyes out of all of her patients.

Link Of The Week

You might not know this, but I'm an avid reader. Although I haven't had much time to read for fun in the past year that I've been working on my second Master's, I still try to read a few pages for fun during the week. Yes, I have a digital reader that is very cool, but there's still something awesome about reading an actual book-book. But I digress. If you like to read, and if you have a digital reader or a phone that has digital reader capabilities, I've got the site for you. The fine people at Barnes and Noble are offering several classic books each week for you to download free of charge. You can even download their digital reader for free, too. I've already downloaded a few of this weeks books and can't wait till next week when they have more. Visit http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooks/category.asp?r=1&PID=34519&cm_em=puddinprp@aol.com&cm_mmc=Non-Member-_-Other-_-100716_NF01_SterlingFree-_-eboeboster and get to reading!

Hot, Hot Summer

I've been running errands for the 'Rents and for me for the past two and a half hours and now that I'm home it feels like I've been working out in the field all morning. It's so humid out today that you could literally cut the air with a knife. I'm worn out now and might have to take a nap before I go to the Bats game tonight. Everyone stay safe and keep cool.

Heatwave Update

I can't quote the exact number, but we're still deep in the midst of the big heat wave. Last night at about 9:00, I ran up to our 'hood Wal-Mart, and when I left the house at 9:05 it was 92 degrees. That is just wrong on so many levels.

For the past week I've been doing my daily riding inside on the recumbent bike in air conditioned comfort, but even then I'm still sweating, so it's not all fun and games. But the heat wave has just been brutal. Even the 'Rents have changed their workday patterns, and are out working in the garden when I leave for work.

The forecast next week isn't very promising - upper 90's for the next week and a half. In the evenings when I go to bed I just thank the Lord for His blessings and His grace, and for LG&E and Trane air conditioners for my cool comfort.

Flashback Thursday

Ordinarily I would be flashing back on Friday, but it's appropriate for me to flashback today. I'm flashing back to this day 31 years ago - almost at this exact time - when my friend next door got married and I was the maid of honor; in fact, it the only time that I've been asked to be a maid of honor in someone's wedding, or even be in someone's wedding. But I digress. You know how old I am, so you can do the math and figure out I was a 16 year-old maid of honor. The bride was 16 years old, too, and 5 months pregnant.

We'd been friends since I was old enough to have a friend, living next door to each other. I was the first person she told about being pregnant, and I was also the first person she told when she said she was getting married. Let me tell you - that's some pretty heavy life things to tell a 16 year old kid. But I supported her and helped her all I could, and it when she asked me to be her maid of honor in her wedding, I knew it was something that I had to do to show my support. The wedding was in the late evening, just about at the time I'm typing this, and the weather was just about as hot as is it right now. I remember every detail about the wedding. The ceremony was outdoors at the bride's aunt and uncle's farm house, two houses down the street from us. The bride wore a long-sleeved white lace long dress, and her husband wore a navy blue suit with a pale blue shirt. I wore a white and red print sun dress with matching short-sleeved jacket and red high heels. I still have a few of the flowers in my boquet pressed together in a big thick book.

I remember standing there, along side the bride's brother who was the best man, thinking how she and her husband-to-be both looked like little kids playing dress up. I also remember her family and friends saying that their marriage wouldn't last. And today they celebrate their 31st wedding anniversary.

We don't see each other much - maybe a couple of times a year if she's next door visiting her parents and we see each other as we're both outside. But she found me on Facebook the other day and sent a friend request, and that brought back a lot of memories, especially about her wedding.

I Want To Move

While running errands during my lunch break today, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to move. I don't want to move far away; just across the road would be fine. It's not that I don't love where The Compound is. It's just that I want to live on the other side of the street so I can use one of the cool mailboxes with doors that open on both ends.

Until today at lunch, I had no idea such a thing existed. But I was stopped in traffic on the road and saw a kid come out of their house and reach in the mailbox through a door on the back of it and though how effin cool is that? No more risking your life getting out on the road to get your mail!! I immediately wanted one, but there's only one problem: our mailbox is across the street. So to access the back door on it, I would have to walk behind the mailbox, and would still have to cross the busy street to get to it.

After careful consideration I decided I'll just stay put, and hope that the USPS will change their rules some day soon and move the mailboxes to our side of the street. I'll keep you posted.

Get Well Soon, Mama W.

TWIT would like to wish a very big get will soon wish to my friend TW's mama, who is has been in the hospital for awhile fighting pneumonia. Knowing TW's mama, she'd be proud that I spelled pneumonia correctly. She's a fighter, and she needs to get back in action to keep an eye out on her son TW, because frankly, my plate is full, Mama W., and I've got more than I can handle right now, so you need to get back in action and watch over your son. I promise you when you get home, I will come over and we will have a huge Christmas in July celebration, complete with Christmas dishes, a turkey, presents, and decorations. I'll even put up a tree if you want. All you gotta do is just get on out of the hospital and get back home.

File Under: WTF?

It was a very bizarre day at work, faithful readers. The youngest member of my department, a 22 year-old guy, had to leave at 1:30 because today was the day he was going to break up with his very obsessive and possessive girlfriend of 6 or 7 years. Yes, he had to leave work shortly after lunch to deal with this. All I could do was shake my head in disbelief.

I'll apologize in advance if I'm being a hardass but I'm sorry - you just don't leave your job for half a day because you're breaking up with your significant other. You just don't do it. Business is business and personal is personal, and the two simply do not mix. I've had to deal with a few things way more significant than breaking up with a significant other during my 21+ years at my company, and I'm proud to say that I never had to leave work after lunch to deal with it. Some may think I'm blowing this out of proportion but it's just the way that I feel about it. The younger people today just don't have any sense of job responsibility. I don't know what he told our boss - I don't know if he told her he needed to leave because he's getting ready to break up with is girlfriend or if he told her he just needed to leave. I've typed and retyped a paragraph or two and ended up deleting it, so I'm going to leave this for what it is.

Link Of The Week

I'm very happy to say that I watched a TV show today that I believe changed my life. It was about the train, The Orient Express. Yes, THAT Orient Express of Agatha Christie fame. The documentary showed the train as it travelled through Europe on its route. The show is on KET this week and I urge you to check your local listings and watch it. Anyhoo, while watching the show with Diva Stacy, we decided then and there that we would take a trip on the Orient Express, hopefully sans the murder like in the Agatha Christie book. You can rest assured that researching the Orient Express will first and foremost second only to my school work for the next year. Yes, I realize that was an oxymoron but humor me. Please check out the Orient Express on http://www.orient-express.com/ and maybe you will want to joint us on our trip.

Special Request Saturday

TWIT is sending out a Special Request today to all bakers, especially cookie bakers. Dad wants to bake cookies using a boxed cake mix, and we're having trouble finding the right recipe. So far, he's been through three recipes and we're not overly thrilled with any of them. So now the plea goes out to you, faithful readers. If you or someone you know have made cookies using a cake mix, please send me the recipe. We're fine with using recipes that I find online or in magazines, but we'd like a first-hand account of making cookies with a cake mix. I hope to hear from you all soon.

Flashback Friday

This afternoon at work, we started reminiscing about cool old school drive-ins that sold root beer, and the first thing that came to my mind was Dog 'n' Suds. Currently at the old Dog 'n' Suds is a seafood restaurant but to me, that location will always be the home of Dog 'n' Suds.

The place was awesome. There seats inside or you could order outside and they'd bring your drinks and food to our car. You could pay extra and get to keep the root beer mug, and just keep on bringing it back for them to fill up. I don't even need to mention that somewhere in the archives here at The Compound I still have my miniature Dog 'n' Suds mug. But I digress.

Then we got on the topic of root beer, and how it's an all-or-nothing thing -- either you love it or you hate. And interestingly enough, I think more people that I know hate then love it. I might be a minority. Dad and I love it, but Mom and Grandma and Diva Stacy hate it. Go figure.

Anynoo. I was just thinking back to the days of the Dog 'n' Suds drive-in, and how we'd go there on Saturday nights and get a frosty mug of root beer. It rocked. I sure wish I could do that today.

Mullet Watch, International

Iran has laid down the law: mullets won't make the cut.

The Islamic regime, which strictly enforces head coverings for women, issued grooming guidelines for the guys this week.

Among the do's that are now don'ts? The '80's Prince-style pompadour preferred by many young Iranian men, the Steven Seagal-style ponytail and the "business in the front, party in the back" sentiment of the mullet -- also popular among the Persian populace.

The approved styles have a distinctly 1950s look to them: short on the front and sides for the most part. But the gel-slathered, combed-back 1980s look also received the government's blessing.

The "Islamic" haircuts were unveiled at the Hijab and Chastity Festival, a fashion event designed to show how the country's youth can be stylish yet not run afoul of the fashion police.
"Hair styles have been designed based on the shape of the neck, beard, the size of the chin and provincial cultures," said Jaleh Khodayar, the secretary of the festival. Her comments were reported by the semiofficial Mehr news agency.

"In designing these hair styles, we have not tried to go backward. On the contrary, we have tried to make our designs a mixture of our traditions and Iranian culture, as well as the latest fashions and by doing so confront the cultural assault by the West (on our country)."
Majid, a 32-year-old Tehran resident who did not want to give out his last name, shrugged his head in amusement.

"I don't think these young men will stop wearing these hairstyles, even though in my opinion they are actually pretty strange," he said.

He prefers his own hair on the short side.

To the outside world, the crackdown on cuts may represent further restrictions by an already restrictive regime.

But in one way, they are a loosening of guidelines: None of the photographs of acceptable grooming styles feature models with full-grown beards -- a look, a la President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Iran had encouraged for years.

That's a hard pill to swallow; mullets are acceptable in PRP, Valley Station and Fairdale, but not in Iran. Maybe we should take a lesson from them.

2010 Heat Wave Update

Faithful readers, it's shocking to report that at almost 10:00 at night, the temperature here in the 'Ville is 90 degrees, with a heat index of 96. That is wrong on so many levels. For those of you who are in the midst of this heat wave, try to keep cool and stay safe.

Burger Of The Month

With all of the restaurants in this country, I'm pretty sure TWIT could come up with a Burger Of The Month - a specialty burger that is served only at that particular restaurant. But in case we don't publish one a month, forgive me. That being said, I'd like to introduce you to the pride of Hodad's in San Diego, the Bacon Burger.

I hope that my description will give you the full visual of this burger. They take a pound of bacon, boil it, and then fry it on a grill with a heavy iron press on top of it, forming it into a patty, and then they serve it in between slices of cheese and a pretty good-sized hamburger patty. With the lettuce, tomato and onion, this monstrosity is over six inches tall.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I would like to try about a fourth of this thing. Sure, I'd have to pedal a few extra miles to work it off but I think it would be well worth it. Just think - most of the bacon cheeseburgers you order in the fast food joints or even fancier restaurants only come with 2 or 3 slices of bacon; this one is an entire thick patty of bacon. I can feel my arteries closing already.

That's What It's All About

Facebook Page Brings Community Together

POSTED: 4:48 pm EDT July 6, 2010
UPDATED: 6:40 pm EDT July 6, 2010

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The Germantown-Schnitzelburg community in Kentucky has a Facebook page, without about 5,000 friends who follow along to keep up with their community.
This is where a mother wanted to post pictures of her son's orange Mongoose bike, which was stolen.

Dan McMahon manages the community's Facebook page, and couldn't turn Rachel Harless down.

“She just wanted me to post something about a missing bike and see if someone happened to see it, or maybe one of their kids had brought home a new bike or something,” McMahon said.
McMahon said that in the back of his mind, he did not think that the bike was going to turn up.
This is when the community stepped in and brought donations to McMahon's local business, Danny Mac's Pizza.

McMahon collected $130 and bought Aaron Harless a new Mongoose, which was orange, Aaron's favorite color.

“Thank you everyone who helped get my bike. I really love it,” Aaron Harless said.
Rachel Harless is keeping the bike indoors, until they can get proper locks to keep it secure outside, she said.

That's what it's all about, faithful readers. Neighborhood eople coming together to help out someone.

And by the way, the Schnitzelberg neighborhood will be the sight of the World's Dainty Contest three weeks from today. I will be ther and will take plenty of pictures to post in TWIT.

Way To Go, Joey

TWIT would like to congragulate Joey "The Jaws" Chestnut on winning the 2010 Nathan's Hot Dot Eating Contest. He ate an impressive 54 hot dogs in 10 minutes. This was Joey's fourth title in a row. The annual contest is always held on the Fourth of July.

But the win was not without drama. Former champ Takeru Kobayashi went crazy and stormed the stage shortly after Joey was crowned champ. Takeru was not allowed to compete this year due to contract dispute. The cops quickly arrested him and hauled him off to jail, where he was just released a couple of hours ago.

Eating 54 hot dogs in ten minutes is impressive, but it was below Joey's record of 68 hot dogs last year.

Happy Fourth Of July

TWIT would like to wish everyone a very happy and safe Fourth of July. Before you start grilling the hot dogs or start cranking the old school homemade ice cream maker or light the overpriced fireworks, please take a few minutes and watch this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENN6Lex5www. As you're watching it, please say a big thank you to all of the brave men and women who gave their lives fighting for our freedom. They truly showed The Last Full Measure Of Devotion. God bless our troops, and may God bless the U.S.A.

Hats Off To Krogers

I just got back from making a quick trip up to our local Krogers and would like to give an Official TWITs Hats Off to the gals at Krogers that grilled the ribs that we just ate. I wanted to take a picture of them, but I confess that I was too busy chewing to work the camera.

I went to the grocery to just pick up a couple of things, when I saw the tent in the parking lot with a sign saying "Ribs". Needless to say, I was hooked. I had to buy a slab, and as soon as I got home I had to cut off one rib to taste them, and as I type this, I'm seriously thinking of driving back up to Krogers to buy another slab. Yeah, they were that good. And best of all, the proceeds from the sale of the ribs today go to the Crusade For Children. So it's a win-win deal. Yep. I'm definitely heading back up the street to Krogers to get another slab of ribs.

Flashback Friday

Here we are - at the beginning of the Fourth of July holiday weekend, and my mind drifts back to the days of my kid-dom when we would go buy nickle and dime fireworks at the neighborhood store down the street. They only carried sparklers, smoke bombs and snakes, but for me, that was good enough. I especially liked the snakes. I guess because I was a rebel at heart and it pissed off Dad and Grandpa because the snakes left a nasty black stain on the driveway that they could never quite wash off.

We didn't care about all of the illegal fireworks that other people brought back from Tennessee - we just liked our smoke bombs, sparklers, and snakes.

Today, kids beg and bug their parents to drive ten minutes away across one of the bridges into southern Indiana where they can peel major $$$$ and buy the bigtime fireworks. I don't have kids, so I don't have to worry about them pestering me to peel $$$$ to buy bottle rockets, Roman candles, and fire crackers. But I have to say I'd have a hard time justifying spending that kind of money just to burn it all away. But I digress. Today is all about the fun we got when we lit one of he snakes that came from a box that cost a dime. I'm guessing that kids today wouldn't be nearly as mesmerized as we were with them.

Pray For Me, America

The loud thud you just heard was the sound of me beating my head against the desk after attempting to get Mom's prescriptions refilled online and then over the phone with the fine folks at Humana's Right Source RX. The key word here is "attempting". After four phone calls I still don't think it's straightened out. The very sweet and helpful "Pauline" assured me that she would fax Mom's doctor and tell them that she needed new prescriptions but something inside is telling me that by tomorrow morning this will be a full-blown FUBAR mess. I just hope that there's not a big FUBAR mess going on at work tomorrow when I get the phone call from home asking for my help in attempting to get this straightened out.