Stealing vs. Borrowing

The definitions of stealing and borrowing are:

Stealing---taking another person's property without the intention of returning it.
Borrowing---taking and using something that does not belong to you with the intention of returning it.

It's a slippery slope, my friends. I maintain you can be guilty of both at the same time. Especially if it's in your own house.

Here's the story:

Butch lost his phone charger. He was certain one of the grandkids took it. I emailed Sandy---her girls said "no." In fact, they made the point that whenever Butch loses his charger, he blames them. The last time he was in Charlotte, he woke Mitchell early when he was trying to leave and asked where his charger was. Turns out, he actually took Mitchell's. Sandy figured that one of Mitchell's friends saw Butch's charger and "borrowed" it. Everyone wound up with a charger, so all was fine.

Well, this time it was the weekend of the wedding that his charger cord went missing. I didn't know that he hadn't found it until he left for Atlanta later that week. It was 11:15 p.m. when I went to put my phone on MY charger only to discover it was gone! He took my charger to Atlanta! To say I was not happy---is an understatement. I was majorly ticked! I had to go outside to my car---and it's cold here in Nashville---especially at night. I have a car charger and wasn't even sure I could make it work inside. Well, I happened to have a USB plug from a previous phone, so I was able to plug the car charger in to it. By the time he got home, I was over it, so he didn't get in trouble for borrowing my charger.

Then, last weekend when I was packing for Kentucky Lake to meet my sisters, I realized I couldn't take my charger and leave him high and dry. Turns out, it worked out fine because Jeanne has the same charger as I do. I'm pretty methodical about most everything in my life, so it's no surprise that I plug my phone in at bedtime to let it charge overnight. All was good.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was chatting on the phone with Sandy. I carried some things upstairs. As I passed by Mindy's room, I noticed that the plantation shutters were askew. I went in to adjust them---things like that drive me crazy. Lo and behold, sitting on Mindy's bed was Butch's phone charger. How did I know it was his? Because I did this to mine a couple years ago:

I forgot that I had also done it to his:

That made it easy to know it was his missing cord. There's no doubt.

So, we pieced together what happened. When Mindy was here for the wedding, she stole Butch's phone cord. It's clear she stole it because she never intended to put it back where it belonged. She doesn't put anything back where it belongs! In her mind, I'm sure she thinks she just borrowed it. True, she didn't take it out of the house. But it would have been lost for months had I not walked past her room---at least it would have been gone until our next house guests.

It's all about intention. And we all know what those roads are paved with!

Stolen or borrowed? It's a slippery slope, I tell you!!

A Few Pictures

If you click on the pictures you can see them bigger---I think!

Friday Funnies

Unpredictable!

That's what our weather is. We went from 13 degrees and 7 inches of snow one weekend to 70 degrees for the wedding the next. Now the very next weekend, we're down in the 20's and have had snow for the past two days. Now this is more of a normal snow for us---not much--

barely enough to cover the grass---and to close all the schools. It's just cold. You know what that means? Perfect weather for scrapbooking!!!

By the time you read this, I'll be at my "sister's crop" with Jeanne and Janet at Kentucky Lake. No telling what we'll be up to.

First Fire...

...after the fire! 

I guess we have money to burn because literally, it went up in smoke!!

Remember this post from New Year's Day? Well it's been since then that we've been without our wood burning fireplace. Turns out there was a lot of damage. $6,000 worth! I also found out that our insurance is so good that they even pay for stupidity!! We were completely honest (you know my philosophy about not wanting to profit from the insurance company---never want to jinx us). Still we had to pay our $2500 deductible, but they covered the rest. The brickwork was cracked all up and down---and we have a very tall chimney. Ashbusters had to build some sort of frame that was lowered inside the chimney from the roof. Then some sort of liquid had to be poured---I don't know, I guess we now have a ceramic chimney. 

I learned my lesson. Even if the branches from the Christmas tree are really little, I won't be burning them!

I missed this and am glad to be able to enjoy it again. Thank goodness we have gas logs in the other fireplaces, but it's not quite the same.

Common Sense

So, my curling iron went kaput. I got myself a new one. It came with these tags.

 Really? Of course it could burn your eyes---if you put it in your eyes! What???

What ever happened to common sense that there has to be warnings about the most ridiculous things. It reminds me of the warning that came with my iron: "Do not attempt to iron while wearing the clothes. " Or something like that. 

I know it has to do with lawsuits, but really? Common sense.

The bridal bouquet is starting to wilt a little, but still looking good. I'm trying to air dry it---we'll see. 

Stephanie and Nicky had a Super Bowl party yesterday. I made the old 1970's recipe---artichoke dip. A few at the party (of course they are young people) had never had it, so I decided to share it here. It's so easy. Also, I'm sharing a new meatball sauce recipe. You can't beat barbecue sauce as the easiest, but this is really good and easy too.

Artichoke Dip

2-12 oz. cans artichokes, drained and chopped

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup parmesan

1 t. garlic powder

Combine all ingredients and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until bubbly. Serve with Fritos or crackers.

Whiskey Meatballs (from Plain Chicken)

2 lbs. frozen meatballs

1 cup ketchup

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup whiskey or bourbon

2 t. lemon juice

2 T. worcestershire sauce

Combine all ingredients in your crock pot. Cook on High for 1-2 hours.