the frog project

A 99% Completed Project!!!

My broken frogs, propped in the corner where they've resided...quite a while.

My multi-use kitchen table (aka workstation).

Cutting the frame for the cement.

The base and feet remnants of the bottom frog. After pouring the cement dust 3/4 into the frame, I pieced poor froggy back together as best I could, then covered him to his calf in more cement dust. Then I added the water, which moved some of his feet pieces. At this point he is still standing. (I haven't painted his frame yet). I fear I may not have pushed him down into the cement mixture far enough, but time will tell.

Who needs to finish a project when you can just start new ones?

:O)

the way to overcome congestion

This has been a week for irritation (in more ways than one!)

First, I'm still fighting this cold.
Second, this on-going health care debate. The left's not going to agree with the right; the right's not going to agree with the left, yet there's a whole lot of middle ground to be covered. And what does almost everyone do? Yell and scream and fight about it!
Third, I had to deal with my one of my pet peeves while sitting in a waiting room this morning...people loudly carrying on personal conversations on their cell phone (even though the sign in the lobby asks them not to do so). Did she really think we were going to jump up and clap because she disagreed with her child's teacher's policy that younger siblings cannot be brought to the school to watch play practice, even if it was ONLY for an HOUR?!
Fourth, the whole Taylor Swift/Kanye West episode...how rude can America get?
Fifth, Serena Williams...since when did anger or popularity make it okay to curse authority?
Sixth, I'm 3/4 through mopping the kitchen floor when I hear the sound of motorbikes. I look up and out the window, only to see a motorbike and a four wheeler heading across the dam RIGHT TOWARD THE SOYBEAN FIELD!!!!GGRRRRR!!!! I knew there was no way I could head them off, but I headed that direction, cleared my raspy throat, and started yelling as loud I could that they couldn't ride there, there was crops in that field, it was soybeans, they'd destroy, turn around, blah, blah, blah, blah. They actually slowed down. I kept walking and took a breath. Then they head on and go into the spillway (probably thinking they could escape that way) but discovered they were blocked by the fence. So instead of coming back towards me, the headed right back toward the field. So I started yelling at them. By this time I'm really mad. The kid on the fourwheeler didn't have a helmet (don't kids have parents these days?!), so I started yelling again in hopes at least he would hear. Either they did or they saw the soybeans, because they turned around. The guy on the bike apologized. I asked him who gave him permission to ride here, and he just shrugged and said, "Nobody." I asked him what made him think he could just drive through people's property without permission. He didn't answer for a minute, and then said, "We're just looking for a place to ride. There's trails out there and we thought there might be here, too." I told him this wasn't a good place to ride as it was a soybean field and they would destroy the crops. They nodded and said that was why they stopped. The lead guy apologized again.
I felt sorry for them a little bit. But just a little. There's not a lot of great places to ride, but they (and their parents) should have thought about that before they bought their vehicles. How would they or their parents react if I drove my car in circles around their house?! And I get so sick and tired of looking out the window to find absolute strangers making themselves at home in our backyard.

On the bright side, while yelling didn't make my cold go away, it did make me breath a little deeper. After my coughing spell from walking back up the hill to the house, my chest actually feels a lot lighter.

intro to money

This morning during a game at the baby shower, one of the objects we were asked to "discover" in our purse was a $100 bill. A teenager actually had one, and joyfully pulled it out. I was telling Bobby about it when I got home, and we were laughing that we were a few years older than her before either of us had ever SEEN a $100 bill, much less touched one.

My first experience with this HUGE bill (am I dating myself or what?) was at the age of 17 as my first job as a grocery-store cashier. A lady handed it to me to pay for her groceries, and for a minute I didn't know what to do with it. Was it for real? Did such a bill really exist? I turned to the older cashier beside me who was training me and as discreetly as possible held it up to her and shrugged. She started laughing and nodded her head yes. I quickly learned that around the first of the month I would receive many of such bills. My mother always payed for groceries with a check, so I was totally clueless people carried around such large bills. I'm still leery of using them, even though my awe of them has vanished.

So what's your $100 bill story?

the important things in life

This past week during a shopping trip at Target, I passed an aisle that had children's stepstools, and it made me laugh.

During the first week we had our little friends staying with us, they were flabbergasted to discover that Mrs. Monica was missing some very important household items. One was a stepstool. "You mean you don't have one AT ALL? Then HOW are we to brush our teeth or go to the potty?" We improvised with some little chairs I have. It didn't turn out to be the safest route, but it worked for the time.

The second week, I was informed I needed a new refrigerator. Ours makes funny noises sometimes, so I fearfully asked "Why?" I get another one of those "Don't you know anything this is SOOO obvious" looks with the response "Refrigerators are supposed to have a place for ice and water on the front. If you had that we could get our own drinks without asking."

It's funny, but they were the second family this summer to inform me we needed a "modern" refrigerator. I had bought a crushed ice machine with a coupon I had at Kohl's this summer, and a family member thought that was crazy. Why buy another gadget when I could just update my refrigerator with one that did the same thing? Hmmm....a $90 ice machine with a coupon that only cost me $50, or a $1,400 (or more) appliance....that one wasn't hard for me to figure.

But it is interesting the things we grow accustomed to in our households and miss when we are elsewhere. I'm guilty of taking our window-filled house for granted until I visit somewhere else and feel almost trapped with so little light.

I think when people are in different surroundings and what is for them, unusual circumstances, people make do with what is there. But I find it interesting that the necessities we tend to take for granted, but it's the tiny luxuries (whether internet or stepstools) we're accustomed to that tend to throw us for a loop when we must do without.

the last lap

The computer is in; the walls are painted; now I just have to find and load drivers and software...but e-mail and interent is up and running!!!! WHOOOOHOOOOO!!!

Pictures will be soon to follow!

recipe pondering

It's Wednesday, and the News & Disturber has their weekly recipe section. I've always had a policy if there's more than two ingredients in a recipe that I have never used or heard of, then it doesn't go in my "to try" pile. For the first time ever, today's edition actually has multiple recipes I want to try, but with a set of new questions. If you've never tried a spice before, and it's supposed to be the highlight of the recipe, is it worth spending that much money on a spice that you might not like and ever use again? Bottles or boxes of spices aren't exactly cheap, you know. (Can you tell I don't try a whole lot of new recipes?) AND, if a recipe calls for white wine, how drastically would it alter the taste if you used white grape juice or chicken stock? Answers anyone?

a joyously crazy life

Sunday night I felt strange. By Monday morning I knew it wasn't anything I had eaten but a bug. :O( Today is better. I've actually done some laundry and made a mess of painting. But that's another story.

When I was a child, one of my uncles would tell us girls that if we talked around a centipede or millipede, our teeth would rot out. And he would then promptly point one out. Needless to say, we not only immediately hushed, but we also clamped our hands over our mouths. Years later, I saw the "See no evil; hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys, and immediately thought of Uncle Charlie and his prank (which to us 8-10 year old girls was the Gospel truth!). Fast forward 10+ years to the clearance aisle at Michael's, where I found a bird feeder/watering statue whose base consisted of frogs doing the "See No Evil..." motions! It stood in our front yard near Bobby's ramp for several years, and then it became an on-going battle with the dogs. I'd stand it up; they'd knock it over. After a week of rain, I finally went out to return it to its upright position, only to find that my mischievous pups had chewed the feet away from the base!!!! Guess they liked frog legs or something.

So last week I bought a bag of cement, made a rough sort of frame, and have hopefully cemented the frog into a heavy base. I'm not sure I placed it deep enough, but time will tell. I still need to paint the frame, but that might have to wait for another week.

Meanwhile, our computer has FINALLY made it to the factory in Kentucky, is in the process of being repaired, and we hope to have it back next week!!!! It'll be so nice to check e-mail from home again!!!