Another Email Survey

1. What was the highlight of your weekend?  Sunday evening at Diva Stacy's

2. How often do you get your hair cut? Every 5-6 weeks faithfully.

3. Can you drive a stick shift? No. I have no idea what to do with the clutch, nor when to do it. If an emergency arises and the only transportation is a stick shift car, I'll just piggy back you to the hospital or wherever you need to go.

4. If someone gave you $1,000 to spend on yourself, how would you spend it?  Buy a custom-made pair of cowboy boots, identical to the ones I had when I was a kid.

5. What are you most afraid of? Disappointing my parents or my best friend

6. Did you take a vacation this summer?  Nope - my big trip of 2007 was the infamous DLV2 in January.  Oh how it rocked.

7. What is your non-alcoholic beverage of choice? Iced tea, unsweetened.

8. What is your favorite kind of cereal? Any variety of Chex.

9. What color looks best on you? Do you wear it often? Slate blue.  I've been told it makes my eyes look piercing. I have a slate blue [low cut] shortsleeve sweater that I wear once every couple of weeks.  It's funny - when I wear it, the women compliment me on my eyes, and the men say "I like your sweater."

10. Have you ever been audited by the IRS?  No, thank goodness.  I don't have enough income to raise any suspiscion.

Top Ten Overused Words Or Phrases From The Weatherazzi During Our Heatwave

1.   Dog days

2.   Dehydration

3.   Hydrated

4.   No relief in sight

5.   Heat exhaustion

6.   Sweltering

7.   Heat index
 
8.   Dew point

9.   Heat advisory

10. Ozone action alert

Link Of The Week

I'm sure there's not too many people my age that didn't have at least one goldfish when they were little.  Most of us didn't have fancy aquariums - we just kept them in big glass bowls.  We usually didn't even have rocks or anything else in the bowl - just water.  And the 29 cent fish from Woolworth's didn't seem to mind.  This week, a friend sent me a link to a site that put my old school glass goldfish bowl to shame.  Believe it or not, there is a company that makes a toilet tank aquarium. Visit http://fishnflush.com and see for yourself that I am not making this up.  You've got to see it to believe it.

 

CSI: The Compound Update

                 

Thanks to our keen investigative work and the handiwork of The Compound SWAT team, I'm happy to report that two of the suspects have been apprehended and are in custody.  The suspects have been extradited to an undisclosed wooded area just across the bridge in southern Indiana where they are free to terrorize some unsuspecting Hoosier's garbage cans.

Flashback Friday

August came in with full force this week; it's been in the mid-90's all week, and next week they're calling for a few days over 100.  What a better way to cool off in this heat than to eat ice cream.  Unfortunately, at the grocery stores where I shop, they don't use the very cool (pun intended) heavy paper bags made just for cartons of ice cream. 

I've talked to a few people, and we all agree that they were called cool-pak bags. They were basically thick small paper bags, and the extra layers of paper helped keep the ice cream cool till you got it home and could put it in the freezer.  One of the people I talked with about the cool-pak bags is a friend of the family who worked in a grocery store back in the day.  She said that they were instructed to put only ice cream in the bags - not even boxes or bags of frozen foods - just ice cream.  She said that if shoppers would ask that she put their frozen foods in the cool-pak bags, she would do it, but she only would if the customers asked.  Yes, it was their store policy to put only ice cream in the sacred bags.

And sacred those cool-pak bags were. At home, we had a hall closet where we kept the grocery bags.  Note I didn't specify and say "paper bags" because back in the day, paper was all we had.  It was my job to fold and put the bags in their spots in the closet - the big bags went on one side, while the smaller sized bags went on a shelf.  The cold-pak bags had their own special spot on the closet.  And woe be unto me if I gragged a cold-pak bag and started to pack my lunch in it.  Grandma would empty the lunch out into a regular paper bag and put the cold-pak bag back in the closet.

CSI: The Compound

             

                                                                           

Dateline: The Compound, Thursday morning 7:20, August 2, 2007

The first photo depicts the crime scene.  Observe the garbage can overturned and the door closed on trap #1.  Note that there is nothing in trap #1.  The suspect ate/took the marshmellows left as bait.

The second photo is a close-up picture of trap #1.  You'll notice the gaping hole in the top of the trap that the suspect used to make his escape.

The third photo is of trap #2.  Observe that the doors are closed on trap #2.  Note that nothing is in trap #2.  The suspect ate/took the peanut butter sandwich left as bait, but left the peanuts. 

In both instances, the suspect set the traps, ate/took the bait, and managed to escape. It beats the hell out of us.

 

Drama At The Doctor's Office

Last Wednesday, my Mother had her annual mammogram, and also had a bone density test during the same visit.  On Thursday, her doctor's office called.  Here's a verbatim transcript of the phone call:

Doctor's office:  Puddin's Mom, your test results are back, and Dr. Edwards would like to see you next week.
My Mom: (who is assuming she has incurable breast cancer at this point) Could you tell me why she wants to see me? Did they find something in my mammogram?
Doctor's office: Your mammogram was fine, but your bone density tests came back with some spots. 
My Mom:  So why does the doctor want to see me?
Doctor's office: (Speaking with hesitancy in their voice) Puddin's Mom, I'm sorry to tell you that you have osteoporosis
My Mom: And?
Doctor's office:  You have osteo, Puddin's Mom
My Mom:  I know that.  I was diagnosed with osteo four years ago when Dr. Edwards had me take my first bone density test.
Doctor's office: Oh.

There was a little more exchange of banter, but I won't go into detail with it.  Suffice to say that Mom had to go to the doctor's office today.  Wait - I meant to say Mom had to pay for another office visit today - for them to tell her that she had osteoporosis; something that her doctor diagnosed four years ago.  Mom said they were acting like this was a big revalation or something.  The doctor did go on to tell Mom that her osteo had greatly improved since the last time she'd taken the bone density test.  As soon as she said that, Mom fired right back and said "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you have records that show I took a bone density test four years ago, and that was when I was diagnosed with osteo.  Today, you're telling me that I have osteo - like it's something I didn't already know.  What's up with that?"  She said her doctor fumbled with her files, and simply said "Whatever you're doing, keep on doing it." I have a feeling my Mom will be in the market for another doctor soon.