Friday Funnies

Five Things Thursday

Since it's summertime, I'm all about the gardens. Enjoy these.

Send me pictures of your garden. I would love to see them--and even post them.

What I Buy Wednesday

Today, I have to admit to a stupid purchase. You know that old saying, "If it's too good to be true---it usually is"? Well, I cannot believe I got sucked in to something so stupid. I should have known better.

I'm so aggravated with myself, that I don't even care if it's a crappy picture. You get the gist of it.

Let's back up to the story.

In February, I went to Chicago to visit Morgan. We had a great weekend together. We stayed at The Drake Hotel. One evening, when we got back to the hotel, a girl (hotel employee) stopped us and offered us a great deal for being a loyal Hilton Honors customer. 

I'm just going to cut to the chase here. She offered me 3 nights and 4 days at The Drake or any other Hilton property for $409. I jumped at it---that was half of what we were paying  for that weekend.

Once I got home and looked in to it, it's one of those "come ons" for a timeshare. What??! I cannot believe I was hoodwinked. Not once was that mentioned. 

So now, we have a decision to make--I say we--because if Butch goes with me, he has to attend the presentation too. We planned to use it for Sedona so he could go to the Barrett Jackson car auction--one of his bucket list items (well, to actually buy a car). We're trying to decide if we're willing to be held captive for a couple hours or just chalk it up to another stupid life lesson. 

I'm leaning towards the stupid lesson. You would think with all of my life lessons, I wouldn't have fallen for this one. I liked to pride myself in being too smart for a scam. Although this is not technically a scam, I still fell for it and that makes me mad!

It ain't Mayberry, but I can hear the whistling!

Different state,  different kid, different dad, different story. Here we go...

So. When the “littles”—who aren’t so little anymore—were here for Camp Aunt Barb, 12 year old Travis was telling me about his new job. He’s mowing lawns! Of course, that’s the quintessential job for pre-teen boys. It's a rite of passage isn't it? Lawn mowing. But for this young entrepreneur, he has come up with a brilliant plan! He hired his dad to work for him. After all, who else could handle the weedeater which can be dangerous for a kid? 

Orrrrr, maybe there’s more to it than that. Perhaps Brian, an airline pilot for American Airlines wanted a “side gig!” Everyone needs a “side gig”—right? Yeah, that’s it. 

Orrrr, maybe Brian was longing for a way to recall the days of his own youth? Nah, that can’t be right. Most kids end up hating the mowing. 

Orrr, maybe Brian sees the money in mowing! Travis gets $30 per lawn. He says it takes about a half hour. 60 bucks an hour sounds pretty good. Oh wait, dad is a free worker! Okay, that’s not it!

Orrrr, maybe he just wanted to get out of the house for awhile. Yeah because everyone would rather be outside sweating in the hot sun and batting away insects rather than relaxing on the couch watching sports in the cool of air conditioning with a beer in hand! Okay, that’s not it.

That takes us back to the “side gig” theory. I never thought I’d see an airline pilot doing lawn work as a side gig. Apparently with the increasing costs of flying, the pilots aren’t getting that money!! Only kidding they make plenty. Plenty. So that’s not it after all. 

My theory is—he can keep an eye on the “boy.” No one’s going to mess with a kid if his dad is right there! Well, unless you are cicadas. They don’t care. They swarmed the kid pretty regularly in their recent heyday. Just one of the downsides of a lawn job—insects! 

Keeping an eye on the boy must be it—and—this is probably a little more likely.

Whatever the reason, Travis needs the help. He’s got quite a nice business going. Already, this early in the summer--June--he’s saved a thousand dollars! I asked him what he was planning to use the money for. He said that he didn’t know. I think he just likes to see that cash piling up. I asked him if he was going to open a bank account. He replied, “No, I have a little safe!” Yeah, I’m not sure a toy safe is all that “safe” if you know what I mean!!

I love these kids so much and this was my favorite story of Camp Aunt Barb 2024. Another one in the books!

Monday Mystery

Well, this mystery is actually solved or so we think. But first, let me take you back to where this mystery began.

You will recall that I've decided to go with all red flowers on the patio this year. We are really loving that. They are so bright and showy. We had this beautiful angel wing begonia--probably my most favorite thing I bought. It was so lush and full. All of a sudden, one day, it was just smashed--like some animal decided to sit on top of the thing and crush it to bits. 

This picture is from the first part of June. You can see the flower in the background. Picture it filling that entire space until something smashed it. I thought Butch had stepped on it getting to the electrical outlet for the fountain. Secretly, I sorta' still thought that's what happened and he didn't want to admit it. (Okay, sorry Butch!) There just was no explanation. It was a mystery. Until...

...it happened again. This groundcover (pachysandra) that looked so nice, was now a mess. 

Upon closer inspection, there was this debris. At first I thought it looked like some sort of hive.

But it's snakeskin---from a pretty big snake! It really freaks me out. Then I remembered these pictures that my neighbor took in our yard from 6 years ago. 

That is one huge snake! The neighbor said it was 6-8ft. long. 

I am very happy that I never saw it in person. Now, I'm convinced that it's still living here. I do not know how long snakes live or what their predators are. I know that they are supposed to be really good for the garden. But this one isn't helping at all. The side yard is full of moles. And, unless it's really old for a snake, I have a feeling it's laid many eggs. The one currently doing all the damage could be a descendent. 

I swear, if I ever do see it, I'm pretty sure I'll have to move!

Update:

We are suddenly having all kinds of yard/garden problems. Butch noticed the work of a mole/moles (must be multiples due to the amount of damage) in our side yard next to the pool. Then he noticed that much of our beautiful ivy is dead. 

Completely dead. It looks like someone sprayed it with some sort of plant killer. Sooo, I had Sara, our garden girl come over. She was baffled as her crew had not sprayed anything. As we walked all around, she notice that much of the remaining ivy has some sort of fungus called leaf spot. It spreads quickly--which accounts for the entire bed being dead. 

Then we continued to walk through the garden to the back yard, noticing that leaf spot everywhere. Sara is going to handle it.

I took this picture from my bedroom about a week ago admiring how nice everything looked. You can see some of the damage in the grass close to the patio. 

What you can't really see from this angle is that the entire yard is torn up.

And on in to the beds. Sara is pretty sure we have an armadillo. She has seen their "work" before. Still, she's going to treat it like moles and dose the entire area with whatever kills moles and something else to get rid of the grubs that moles feed on. In the meantime, she put a "mole bomb" down the snake hole (she verified that for sure). This happened:

Sara told me that the smoke is supposed to permeate the tunnels underground. The fact that the smoke came out of the hole told her that either something was sitting in there blocking it, or that there is not an actual tunnel there. Either which way, I'm still freaked out. I think about when I'm sticking my hand in the pond to trim my water plants and gather any other debris, there might be a snake in there. Makes me kinda' scared. No, not "kinda"---really scared!

Then, Sara sent me this picture from the front yard. 

What the?? This is ridiculous! I have no idea what's going on around here!

Oh and then to add insult to. injury, the dang rabbit is back!

I think I'm going insane! I could understand if he was eating the leaves but he's just stripping them.

Just when we seem to have our pool problems under control (I guess I shouldn't have said that), it something else. There's always something else. And just when everything was looking so nice. I just want someone to wave a magic wand and make all these problems disappear. If only....

Further update:

Butch went out at 2:30 a.m. with a flashlight to see if he could find some nocturnal animals reaping havoc in the yard. He didn't see anything. I guess they just weren't frolicking at 2:30 a.m. Sheesh!

Further, further update:

Yesterday, I prayed for help with our yard. I don't recall ever praying for landscaping. I don't know if God intercedes for the benefit of a nice yard. I guess that would mean he'd have to do something about his other creatures who are annoying the "he**" out of me! I sure hope he does.

Something for Sunday

Tuesday night, we went to the New Kids on the Block concert. Sandy even came in town for it. I love having all of my girls together. The concert was great! This was my 5th NKOTB concert. I think it is going to be my last. Don't get me wrong, I'll keep going to concerts, but I really only have a few more on my list: Chris Stapleton, Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert (and maybe Dolly)! I've been fortunate to see most of the major groups/stars that I've wanted to see. I hate that I missed Pavarotti (years ago) and Taylor Swift. But other than that, I have seen so many wonderful artists: The Rolling Stones (twice), Elton John (twice), Pink, Kenny Rogers, Air Supply, Diana Ross, Bon Jovi, Brooks and Dunn, Garth Brooks (three times), George Strait, Carrie Underwood, Little Big Town, Willie Nelson, Kid Rock (twice), Air Supply, The Beach Boys (twice), The Temptations, The 4 Tops, Smokey Robinson, Peter Frampton, Felix Cavelieri of The Rascals, Shania Twain--that's all I can think of off the top of my head. I do love live music. 

We have a pool party every week. This was the week before last. This past week, when Sandy was here, there were nine of us. We have lunch at the pool. Everyone takes a turn. It's always so much fun--not to mention refreshing in this heat.

So, my sil, Janet was here two weeks ago. She showed me this picture of the winner of a 5K. I was so surprised that little Josie was the winner! Her sister, Evie came in 2nd. I was thrilled for her that she beat her big sister. Every year at Camp Aunt Barb, she gets herself worked up when she can't quite keep up with the big kids. What an ego boost for her! Plus, she earned it by training with her mother. She even beat her dad. Okay, he probably did the dad thing and let her cross first! Good for her. She just might decide to keep it up. I hope she does. 

About a week ago, Jordan and Robbie and Morgan and Olly met up at the Grand Canyon for hiking and camping. They meet at a different national park each year. I love that and am impressed that they are so outdoorsy!

When Janet was here, I planned a night in Franklin, TN to have dinner and go to The Stable Reserve for their songwriter's night. It's so much fun. The Stable Reserve is an old building that housed the original "paid parking" dating back to the 1800's as people dropped off their horses and buggies at this stable while they shopped Main Street. This was my second time going. It's really a lot of fun and the music is so good.

A bunch of random stuff, but worth mentioning.

Scrapbook Saturday