What Goes Around, Comes Around

I never really knew what that meant until I realized that Butch is using my "tricks" on me now! I guess after 36 years, he's learned them all. He has been talking about getting himself a bike for several weeks. I tried ignoring him for awhile thinking he'd forget about it. But when he didn't, I just brought up the obvious reasons why it's a waste of money: no time to ride, it would just sit in the garage where we don't really have room for it and besides, it's probably just a passing fancy anyway. Apparently, he's really serious because he even brings it up with friends about how Barb won't let him get a bike (I guess I have more power than I thought).

Anyway, on our way to church on Sunday, I asked him what he was going to do today. (Okay, stay with me here, it will make sense soon). He replied, "I'm going to a couple Open Houses"! That caught me off guard! He's made comments about moving now and then, but again, I thought he'd forgotten about that---especially since I'm doing so much re-decorating. To make a long story short, the house was much more than I want or need. So, on the way home, I said, "Now I get it---if you can't have a new house, you'll take a new bike". Therefore letting me know he's settling and getting his way at the same time. What can I expect? He learned from the master!

Church Brings out the Worst in Me!

Everytime we go to Mass, I try really hard to pray and be holy. But it doesn't last long. My mind starts to wander. I invent stories about the people around me. There was a guy in the pew in front of us that had a huge dent in his head that was totally black in the center--about the size of a quarter. I couldn't imagine what could have fallen on his head to cause this. I finally settled on a story that he was bitten by a brown recluse after putting on his dusty, moldy old garden hat to prevent his bald pate from getting sunburned while he set up Japanese Beetle traps to save his heirloon roses. Seemed like a nicer thing to think about in church rather than he was hit by the ceiling fan during a romp in the hay. Besides that, he was a bit too old to be romping---if ya' know what I mean!

On to the next person---a young man in church alone with a baby. I admired the brave guy and imagined his story: his wife is off fighting in Iraq and he's keeping the home fires burning. Shaking off that idea, it seemed more likely that he was divorced and it was his weekend for visitation. Still, gotta' love a guy who takes a baby to church. Doesn't really fit the divorce scenario. I gave him the father of the year award. The only plausible answer was that he took the baby to church so his sleep deprived wife could sleep in.

All this in the first five minutes. Mass was going to be long today!

Next, a guy sat in the pew in front of us wearing nearly the exact same shirt as Butch. I nudged Butch and he growled---"I know"! If it wouldn't have caused a scene, I'm sure we would have moved. I was reminded of the time that we got to church in my car and it was pouring down rain. I had two umbrellas, so I gave him one. Unfortunately for him, they were matching Brighton umbrellas with red and pink hearts all over. He said, "oh, great"! But what choice did he have. On the way in, two separate people said "nice umbrellas". They are nice. He wasn't.

Okay, so that was 5 more minutes---it was going to be a long mass. I think I dozed off some. They played a song I liked, so I got the songbook and sang---pretty loud---I do that when I know the song.

Then it was time for Communion. Afterwards, when you are kneeling and supposed to be praying for a long time (I can only pray for a short time), I'm watching the shoes go by. I do that in airports too. "love 'em, hate 'em, hate 'em, like 'em"---the "hate 'em"'s usually win. There are some ugly shoes out there.

Priest sits, we all get to sit. Ahhh, now we're into the home stretch. I can just about smell breakfast.

Don't get me wrong, I do pray. It's just that you can only say so many Hail Mary's and Our Father's. I think it's okay---God gave me this short attention span---at least I'm there part of the time. That should count for something.

Happy Together

How appropriate that this song was by The Turtles!! Click on the image to see it bigger.

Creative Escape

Pam and I just returned from Creative Escape this past weekend. It is the ultimate scrapbook event. And for those of you that think $600.00 was a ridiculous amount to spend on something like this, let me put it in perspective for you. We brought the guys with us so they could golf. 3 rounds of golf cost them $630.00. At least our fee covered all classes, workshops, make and takes and food---not to mention all the "stuff" we got. We all had so much fun that we want to do it again next year. However, I don't know if we could be so lucky to "get in" again. They sold 600 spots in 1 1/2 minutes---yes, you read that right---1 1/2 minutes. I guess we were just lucky this time.

The picture below features Heidi Swapp and "Mr. Bazzill" who put this event together. So much fun!

The Reason You Don't Ask a Stranger to Take Your Picture

Cell Phone Ignorance

I don't know what made me think I could download a new ringer for my phone without Mindy's help. But, I decided to do it anyway. Everyone knows my love of theater and showtunes. A few years ago with Mindy's help, I downloaded a tune from Phantom and another from Rent. Well, I'm kind of tired of them, so decided to download one from my favorite musical of all time---Les Miserables. The song I picked is "The Dream I Dreamed". Just punch a few buttons and select---simple, right? Wrong! Oh, I did it all right. I guess there was a way to preview or find out what the song would sound like. That would have been nice. Imagine my surprise when my phone rang with the lyrics---"I had a dream my life would be... so different from this HELL I'm liiiving"! That song is so beautiful with rich lyrics and I get that line? It's so far from the truth---my life is pretty darned good. Now what am I going to do? I've already paid $2.50 for it. But if I keep it, I might jinx myself. What to do? That's what I get for trying to be "hip".

New Furniture

In my younger years, I would never have dared to ask the salesman to move chairs from the 3rd level and a table from the 2nd level to the couch I found on the first level just to get a look at it all together. But, now I have an attitude! If those "clones" are going to annoy me, then they are going to earn their money!! Here are a couple pictures. I'll send another when I have the living room done.