Mindy Update

Since Mindy isn't blogging anymore, I'll just keep you up to date with the things she sends me. I might add that she is proud of herself that for the last 6 months, she's having automatic withdrawals weekly for her savings account. Of course, she used that "against" us when requesting some spending money for when Steph visits next week (as in, "I would hate to have to use my savings..."). I told Steph that since we weren't taking a family vacation this summer, I'd give her some money for New Orleans. She told Mindy, who immediately called Butch and asked him to match it. The girl knows how to work it!! Butch hasn't given her an answer yet as he told her that he could live 3 months on the money I'm sending! He'll cave---he can't resist his girls! I love that.

Email from Mindy today to her dad and I:

You'd be so proud of me! Not only am I doing better about managing my money, but I have inadvertently found another way to recession-proof my life:

As I have become quite the blockbuster junky lately (watching movies suits Mike's and my schedules and budgets moreso than trying to go out after work), I emailed blockbuster.com to commend them on one of their store locations (the most impeccably clean, well-staffed, and well-stocked location I have ever seen) and they emailed me back 3 free rental coupons! If you do the math, thats $15 dollars and 3 nights of entertainment I just got completely free!

I should be like a columnist for Cosmo about how to manage your money without sacrificing a fabulous and fun lifestyle!

Mindy

Time for a New Friend---Maybe!

Connie has been getting me into a lot of trouble lately. Butch says I need a new friend as she's costing him too much money---and we all know how he feels about that! 

Case #1.

As always, the girls had gone to dinner on the guys poker night 3 weeks ago. I was driving Connie and Linda home. We dropped Linda off and then proceeded to Connie's house. About half way there, Connie said, "you wanted to turn there".  Now it's not like I don't know where she lives after all these years but we were going home from a direction that I don't normally go. Okay, not exactly the way I was planning to go, but I backed up and turned. We proceeded along and came to another stop. As I was going through the intersection, she said again, "you want to turn right"---just as I passed. I put the car in reverse and---BOOM---backed into another car. Not hard, but my fault for sure. Connie immediately started to say, "Oh Barb, I'm so sorry! I'll pay for it. I'm so sorry!" I just said that it wasn't her fault and got out of the car. There was no damage to my car at all. The other driver's car had a tiny 1/2 x 1/2 inch "nick" from my trailer hitch. Turns out she claimed it. Her car was a 1996 Audi that already had nicks and rust spots. We're sure she pocketed the money, but it was my fault. Anyway, Butch wanted to know why neither of us heard the "ding, ding, ding" of the back up sensor. I swear, I don't think it sounded. Connie helped me further by telling him that all we heard was the honk! Okay, he's over that. She swears that she's never going to be a front (or back) seat driver again.

Case #2.

Connie invited all of our friends to meet at their house on Thursday night to kick off the holiday weekend with a drink and dinner at Rose Pepper's---a Mexican restaurant in East Nashville that most of us had never been too. We decided to all pile into 2 cars. Butch drove his new "used" Mercedes. Jack, Connie and Nancy were with us. Dinner was great. After two pitchers of Margaritas and assorted beers, I decided to drive home. I don't like beer or Margaritas, so I had a sangria---mostly fruit juice. I was perfectly capable of driving home. 

It's late enough that the traffic is very light. I'm driving down a pretty wide 4-way street when I see a "white" thing on the road. There were no other cars in sight. Without realizing it, I drove right over it. Butch started freaking out---how could I run over a opossum! Well that did it, ALL of my friends in the back seat were laughing so hard with Connie leading the pack. I said that I thought it  was a towel. Butch said why would I run over anything when I had so much room to go around. I really didn't have an answer for that. Then the back seat comments started---barely audible above the laughing---"it's a fresh opossum too!, looks like you aimed for it, there's probably stuff squished in the tire, why didn't you go around it, I didn't see anything, just felt the kabump, kabump, etc."---you get it, real supportive friends.  Butch said we'd probably have a flat tire from a bone. I just said that I was so glad that I could provide them with so much entertainment! Connie said that she could see I was going to hit the opossum, but was keeping her vow to not say anything. Gee, thanks. Butch got over that too. 

Case #3.

Yesterday, bright and early on the 4th, Jack and Connie came over to go geo-caching with us. Our first stop was at a school we had never been to before. We were crossing the playground to get to the woods at the edge when Connie spotted the tether ball---you remember that---sort of a volleyball on a long rope attached to a steel pole. Connie started squealing---"come on Barb, let's play--I loved tether ball." Being the good sport that I am, I agreed. We weren't even playing 2 minutes when I was getting back into the zone. I was slamming it while Connie was ducking and dodging it on her side. Now I'm ready to really put it away. I balled up my fist and threw everything I had into it. The momentum kept me going and I fell onto my left side. Connie said, "okay, you win." Thanks! I hurt my foot but tried to hide it at first. The limping gave me away. Then the swelling and bruising started. Butch just shakes his head---he thinks I act like I'm 10 most of the time. I ended up sitting in the car while Jack and Butch found several caches. Connie and I talked about not wanting to realize that we might have limitations at 57 (and her at (gasp) 60! She recently nearly threw her back out while trying to demonstrate a cartwheel to her granddaughter). Add to that, her comment, "well, if you weren't trying to kill me!" That's my Zimmermann competitive nature---when it comes to sports, I can't do it half way! Anyway, I finally showed her the bruising on my hand too. I really thought that I had broken by foot and possibly fractured my hand. Still, we went on to find 9 caches and had lunch. We got home about 1:30. I took 3 ibuprofin and put ice on my foot. When the Lapps family arrived at 4, I was barely able to put any pressure on it. Connie arrived with a boot she had from when she broke her ankle. I didn't use it that day, but figured I'd wear it starting today. Miraculously, when I woke up at 4 a.m. to take Sandy and Greg to the airport, my foot wasn't nearly as bad or painful as yesterday. The swelling has gone down some too. My wrist barely hurts at all. I guess I dodged the proverbial bullet. Now I just need to remember to act my age with all the kids here this week.

As for Connie, we sure have had a lot of fun adventures over the years. I guess I'll keep her for awhile longer---maybe! 

Photos from Scotland

Well, I still can't seem to get the words lined up with the right pictures. I think you can figure it out.

The flowers were just gorgeous. I discovered the wild flower on the right while Butch and I were geo-caching. I just love the yellow and orange combination.

The knot gardens were incredible. This is what mine is supposed to look like. 

Here we all are with our driver, Ivor. This is the night we took him to dinner with us. He introduced us to haggis (the blood, guts and oatmeal I mentioned).

Electronics Get Me Charged Up-date

You may recall my trials and tribulations when trying to hook up the converter box to my old tv in my scrapbook room that doesn't have cable. Well, the Radio Shack guy that sold me the converter box told me that I would get more than the 2 channels I was currently getting and even more once the digital switch had taken place. I could only get channel 8 (PBS) and channel 2 (ABC). That was really fine with me because even though our other tv's get hundreds of channels, there's never anything good to watch anyway. 

When I finally got the box hooked up, I got 4 stations---2 were PBS and 2 were ABC. I could see that there were others in the higher numbers, but they weren't coming in yet. So now, I'm a happy girl. I'm thinking that when the change takes place, I'll have at least 6 channels. 

Well, guess what? After the change, I only get ONE channel---PBS! I don't even get channel 2 anymore. What will I do without the GMA crew? How else will I get my news? A newspaper, you suggest? Never! I don't have time for that and besides, it makes my fingers all black. I'd rather stay ignorant and rely on my friends to keep me up-to-date on local news.

Not to be deterred after I've already invested so darn much time in this friggin' converter box (not to mention the money---okay I had a good coupon---but it wasn't FREE), I consulted Butch. I was trying to logically figure out what the converter box was supposed to do and what part the "old" tv played. Butch starts talking all kinds of language about signals, ions, electrodes---you get it---foreign. I guess he was having deja' vu of his tv repairman days. Then he says that he needs to hook up a larger antenna on or near the window. Whoa, baby! I don't want any ugly antenna sticking out in my "cute" room. Before he ran off to the store, I stopped him. I just wanted a simple answer to a simple question. Could the problem be the old tv?

With that, Butch goes to his office which he doesn't use---which used to be the exercise room that never saw any exercise---at least it's a guys kind of "cute" room now. He hauls a huge 'nother friggin' "old" tv into my cute room. He hooks it up and voila'---I have channel 2 again. But now I have the stupid converter box and this big, old, honkin, ugly tv that takes up practically my whole table. He didn't really see the problem. 

I've decided to take matters into my own hands. I've ordered myself a new tv via the internet. It's cute, small--15", flat screen, built in dvd player and best of all WHITE---so it goes well with my scrapbook room, junky, white furniture decor.

And the next best thing of all----I don't need the stupid converter box! So much for that time wasted...

A bit of sad news

Well, I've done it again. I lost my "good" diamond bracelet. And I wasn't even drunk. We girls were shopping on Monday before our spa treatments. Somewhere in St. Andrews is a very happy person. I just hope that whoever found it is someone that could really "use" it. The hotel was very good about calling all the places we'd been. This bracelet had two safety guards and neither had ever come undone before. Who knows. Anyway, although I "loved" that bracelet, I was determined to keep the loss from ruining my trip---and everyone else's too. It's just stuff. Still, I'm pretty sad. I've been saying it ever since the kids were little: "I can't have anything nice!" Now I don't think I'm even going to try!

A Wee Leetle Greeting From Scotland

We are having a great time and Scotland is beautiful. We've visited castles with the most gorgeous knot gardens. I told my friends that this is what my knot garden is supposed to look like---of course, mine is paltry in comparison.

The golfers are having a lot of fun, although the actual golf isn't so good. The weather---in Butch's words, "we had sunshine, wind, rain, and sleet---then we moved to the second hole." They have a saying here: "sun at 7, rain at 11" and it seems to be true. You can tell we are the tourists as we're the only ones with umbrellas---the Scots don't even wear rain hats.

The best thing we did was arrange for a private "coach" and driver. Ivor has become our new best friend. He anticipates our every need. He surprises us every morning with little treats. Makes me feel like I'm at a scrapbook retreat! Oh, and Butch has gotten him into geo-caching. Ivor found his first one in Dornoch. He's hooked! We've taken him to dinner and out for drinks with us and the guys are taking him to play golf with them tomorrow. I told him I'd drive the coach tomorrow and he handed me the keys. I guess we're actually driving our driver now---and taking him on vacation!

The food has been good, albeit, very unusual. I've been adventuresome---willing to try it all. Today, we went to an antique fair. One of the Scots asked me how we were enjoying our trip. I said that it has been fabulous, but the haggis---not so much. Haggis is a kind of mush made with blood, guts and oatmeal all mixed up. It's black---as is the black pudding, made from blood and oatmeal. This is the stuff that the poor people ate, but I guess no one told them that they're not so poor anymore....

One last thing---it stays light out until almost 11 p.m. and is dark for only about 5 hours. I guess I've never been this far north before.

I'm picking up a wee bit of an accent. I'll quit with the "blethering" (babbling) now me lassies, lest I start to look like an "eejit" (idiot).

Pictures when I get home....

Feed my Fish!

Just click anywhere in the fish tank and you'll leave some fish food. All the fish will rush over to it. Aren't they cute? Now that's my idea for a pet!

As you can see, I've added a little more fun to my blog. Now when you check it each day, you can learn something---even if I haven't posted.