One Foot on a Banana Peel

Blinkie by LilMsGlitter

There is so much I could should be doing today.  I have tons of things to price for my open house, posters need made, prize baskets need put together, the sink is full of dirty dishes, the dishwasher is full of clean ones, everything is suddenly dusty and as always there is a mountain of laundry.  I just don’t feel like doing much of anything.  I think inspite of all my precautions I might be coming down with a cold.  Poo.

Tonight is the official trick-or-treat night in our area.  Odd for us, because most years it’s always on the Saturday afternoon closest to Halloween.  Nice to see them letting the kids have the fun of going around in the dark.  I always thought it lost something in the daylight and let’s face it, the boogie men who put bad things in little kids’ candy still do it in the daylight.  It’s not like they are standing out there on the street corner shoving razor blades into candy bars and need the cover of night to hide them.  And as for keeping kids off the streets and vandalism down…..yeah, right!  Kids are kids and if that’s what they’re going to do they will just go out at night anyway.

Tim and I aren’t doing anything for Halloween.  Megan is going out trick-or-treating with her friends.  Yes, she is in 9th grade and yes, I think that’s too old, but I’m a big meanie if I don’t let her go because somehow or another it got to be okay in this area for sr. high age kids to trick-or-treat.  We’ve laid down the law, though, that this will be her last year no matter how much whining goes on.

Thanks heaps, Eve, for choosing to commit that original sin that wound up getting us women cursed for all time.  Yes, we were originally blessed to be the ones with all the "plumbing" to bear children, but thanks to you we now have a world of woes to go with the privelege and I’m not just talking about cramps, PMS and the pain that goes with childbirth.

Take me as a case in point.  I take medication because without it, I hemmorage every month.  Last summer I had surgery to remove cells that were as close to being cervical cancer as they could possibly be without actually being cervical cancer.  Last week I had my first mammogram.  My doctor called Friday, but I wasn’t home so I returned his call today.  I need to have a "spot compression test" because there is a thickening in one area.

Probably nothing, I know.  I’m not panicing or anything.  I’m just tired of the seemingly never ending parade of "female problems."  Oh, and it isn’t the most welcome of news when Tim’s oldest sister just had a canerous lump and several lymph nodes removed and will be starting chemo and radiation soon.  Worst case scenerio is fresh in everyone’s mind right now.

As for the weekend, we had a good one.  Tim and I dropped Megan at her party Friday night then went out for dinner and hit Wal-Mart.  Saturday we went to that vacation pitch with our friends.  It wasn’t exactly a time-share deal, but it was outrageously expensive.  They made it sound like a great deal, but I don’t think they were expecting anyone to sit there with a calculator (which we did) and disect the whole thing.  No deal at all if you really do the math.  They did give us a voucher for a 3-day vacation in one of three places.  The fine print says that all expenses outside of the airfare and hotel are the "winner’s" responsibility.  They don’t tell you what those expenses (such as taxes, entertainment tax, etc.) will amount to up front.  No, they want you to pay a $50 deposit that you will get back when you check in to the hotel.  So basically, it costs $50 to find out whether or not you can even afford your "free" trip.  I think we’ll pass.  Ah well, we had a fun day with our friends and came home through downtown Pittsburgh and had dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse in the Strip District.  Sunday we went to visit Matt.  We had lunch with him and did a bit of shopping and got signed up for a new cell phone plan.  We got home in time for me to watch the Steelers lose.  Again.

Awww geez….my friend just called me.  I didn’t even know it was her at first.  She was hysterical.  All I could make out was "They killed him!"  Well, holy cow, I’m freaking out wondering who I’m talking to and who was killed.  Finally got it sorted out and learned that a state road crew had just flown down her road and run over her dog.  Ugh.  They never stopped to tell her and when she chased them down they basically told her ‘Oh well, it was an accident.’  The supervisor was on the truck and he said he wouldn’t do anything about it.  Nice.  I got her calmed down and now she’s trying to decide what to do since it was her daughter’s dog and she gets home before either my friend or her husband.  She’s obviously going to notice the dog isn’t there.

I totally understand how my friend feels.  I’m a pet-person, too, and my pups are part of my family.  I’d be devastated if that happened to one of them.  As it is I’ve been squeezing the stuffing out of them since talking to her and they’re looking at me like I’ve gone nuts.

It’s Friday again.  ‘Bout time, don’t ya think?  The private school I drive for in between my regular runs has had 11:45 early dismissals all week.  I have just enough time to run home in the mornings to let the dogs out and do a chore or two before I have to head back.  Then I just stay at the garage till the afternoon runs.  It makes for long days and I’m not getting much done.

We’ve got a bit of a busy weekend on tap.  Megan is going to a friend’s Halloween party tonight and staying over.  That means a night all alone for Mom and Dad.  Ooooooo!  Don’t get excited.  We’ve got to sit down and pay bills tonight and that will probably leave us in a most un-romantic mood.  This is one of those weeks when the money’s gone before it even gets here.

Tim’s taking tomorrow off since it is supposed to rain…..not the weather you want to be digging ditches in.  We are going to Cranberry (north of Pittsburgh) with friends in the afternoon.  They signed up for some contest a while back and have "won" a prize.  Supposedly if we all go and listen to the shpeel for an hour we’ll get 3 days/2 nights and airfare to Las Vegas paid and all we’ll have to do is listen for another hour in Vegas and pay the taxes.  They want us to go with them so we said we’d give it a listen.  If it turns out to be legit (can it possibly be?) and the taxes are reasonable we’d go to Vegas.  Megan is staying home so she can go trick-or-treating with the other kids in the neighborhood if we don’t get back in time.

Sunday we are going down to visit Matt.  His problematic roommate finally moved out (after trying to get Matt in trouble and having it backfire) and Tim is going to fix a few things in the apartment so Matt doesn’t get hit for damages even though he didn’t do it.  We’ll probably walk around the mall or something, too, and Tim’s going to have a "chat" with him about the cell phone and the bills he’s been racking up even after we’ve talked to him about it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, are you feeling lucky?  Me, if it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all.  Okay, I’m not cursed or anything, but I don’t win stuff, either.  So, hoping that you’re luckier than I am here are some links to try winning great prizes.

• Oster is giving you the chance to win a complete set of Oster appliances, a 3-day weekend in New York and the chance to meet TV celebrity chef, David Lieberman.
• Country Living wants your opinion.  Take a five minute survey and be entered to win a $5000 American Express Gift Card.
• GE is giving away $25,000 for a home makeover.
• Riders jeans is giving away a weekend in New York for you and a friend.  The grand prize includes airfare, hotel, dinner, $1000 shopping spree and a beauty makeover for you and your friend.
• Woman’s Day is giving away lots great prizes.
• Redbook is, too.

GOOD LUCK!

For colds and flu, that is.  I work around kids and let’s face it, cute as they are, they are big ol’ walking piles of germs.  There’s a kind of acceptance among bus drivers that we get a cold in September and it stays with us the rest of the year.  It just changes in degree of illness from "I’m miserable, but I can drive" to "I’m going to have to feel better to die."  Knock on wood, I’ve pretty much missed out on all the fun the last three years.  I give credit to a couple of things…vitamin C tablets taken every day once school starts, a flu shot, keeping antibacterial tissues on the bus for the kids, and when I do get a cold I start sucking on Coldeze lozenges right away (they really do shorten a cold and lessen the severity).

I figure this is a subject everyone’s interested in so here’s a few things I found out on the subject.

• Cold viruses are spread via hands when we touch something or someone then touch our mouth, nose or eyes.
• Flu viruses are airborne.  An unprotected sneeze launches the little buggers at up to 200 mph for a distance of 3 feet.  The flu virus can live outside a host for more than 24 hours.
• Colds and the flu are viral infections.  Antibiotics won’t do any good unless you get a secondary bacterial infection like bronchitis or an ear infection.
• Colds are contagious for as long as you have the symptoms.  The flu can be contagious 24 hours before symptoms appear and up to 10 days afterward.
• Prevention is the name of the game…wash your hands (a lot), cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough, use disposable tissues not cloth hankies, don’t share drinks or utensils, keep your hands away from your face and think about getting a flu shot if you’re in a high risk job or your health situation warrants it.

Get more info at FluFACTS.

Depending on where you go around here today, this is what you will see.  The snow is flying everywhere, but sticking only in the higher elevations.  Still, it is a cold, windy and very dreary day. 

I don’t know about you all, but when the weather turns cold, the days grow shorter and the nights longer my thoughts turn to hearth and home.  I love the cozy evenings with the family gathered together, the heartier meals and all the fuss and preparations for the holidays.  With that in mind, I’ll be giving my posts a more domestic flavor in the coming weeks and sharing all kinds of goodies that I find.

Today, I’m giving you links to some fun things to do on the computer.

• Play Halloween Hangman and try not to build the skeleton, who heckles you on every wrong guess.
• Can’t get enough of Halloween?  Try carving a virtual pumpkin.
• Thinking of Christmas or if you just like winter, you’ll love creating your own snowflakes.  This is a virtual version of cutting them from folded paper.

On the menu tonight:  Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup.

I say that like I have big, exciting plans for the weekend.  Nah.  I live, quite possibly, the most unexciting life on record.  It’s not by choice.  Mostly it’s due to being wed to a workaholic who is hardly ever available to do things.  I must admit he is getting better.  We do actually go out or get together with friends a couple of times a month these days.  That’s up from a couple of times a year.

Anyway, no big plans for the weekend.  We are supposed to go to a Halloween party of sorts at our friends’ farm tomorrow night, but that’s going to depend on the weather.  They build a big bonfire and we spend the whole evening outside.  We nearly froze to death last year.  It’s been raining since last night.  I can handle cold, but the rain has got to stop.  I’m not standing around in that.  I don’t know if I’m dressing up.  I’m thinking Eskimo if I do……longjohns, parka, hat, gloves, scarf…..

The rest of the weekend I’m going to be perusing my cookbooks trying to decide what to serve at my Avon Open House on Nov. 5, pricing items I have to sell (I want to give my customers a good enough deal that they’ll want to buy and still make a bit of a profit) and creating/printing contact forms and entry slips for the prize drawings.

Well, I’m off to find something for lunch and then it’s back to work.  One of the schools I drive for has early dismissals every Friday so I have to head back an hour earlier. 

Enjoy your weekend!

6….7….8….9….10.  Nope.  Not calm.  Still ticked. 

Why?

Because my favorite husband (at the moment he’s lucky I don’t have a harem to choose from) called me on my way to work this morning.  He ran out of gas on the way to work.  He had walked out of the house without cash or the bank card.  He was not exactly happy.  In fact, he carried on loudly and longly (yeah, I know that’s not a word) about how I’d have to do something.  Somehow or another it was all my fault.  Phhhbbbttt! 

Now I didn’t really appreciate being screamed at, but I realized he was under stress and that he needed to get to work.  So…..I called into my job and asked if someone could cover me for the morning (they could).  Then I turned the car around and headed for the other side of Pittsburgh (during peak rush hour traffic) to rescue my poor hubby.

When I called from the road, about half way there, his response seemed kind of lame.  Kind of like "whatever."  Hmmm, here I am going three hours of driving out of my way and losing half a day’s pay and he’s not really caring?!?  Pardon my french, but WTF????

After many delays due to traffic, tunnels and construction I finally pulled up behind his truck.  It was sitting right where he said it would be.  His directions were perfect (they usually are).  Just one thing was missing.  Tim.  He was nowhere to be found. 

I called him and mentioned that I was with his truck and he was not.  Oh…..sorry.  He gave me some more perfect directions, which I followed without problem…TO THE JOB SITE LESS THAN 1/2 MILE AWAY!  He had walked the short distance and had been working the whole time.

When I pointed out to him that I could have worked this morning and then come down he just said, "Oh, sorry."  Grrrrrrrrrr.  I was so steamed I could barely speak to him.  I think he finally figured it out because he called me about 4 times while I was driving home trying to make nice.  Ha!  I’m not having any of it (at least not right away).  He can just worry about it for a while.

We had a great weekend. Megan didn’t have school on Friday, so spent Thursday night (and most of Friday) at a friend’s. It worked out well, because I had to work half a day on Friday.  The public schools in the district I drive for were closed, but the private school I drive for had half a day.  I could have come home in between taking them to school and bringing them home from, but for all the longer it would have been I didn’t feel it was worth burning the gas.  I hung out in the drivers’ lounge and read a book.  When I did get home, I "hired" Megan and one of her friends to deliver Avon brochures in the neighborhood.  Then we went to Wal-Mart so I could pick up my new glasses and they could spend their earnings.  Tim and I were looking forward to going out to dinner….alone!…but another run-in with my mom killed that.  I was just too upset and wouldn’t have enjoyed it.  Tim was ready to tear into her (still is for that matter), but I’ve asked him not to.  It just isn’t worth it and would make a lousy situation worse, ya know?

Saturday Megan and I were up early, picked up her friend and on our way to pick up Matt and Ashley by 8:00.  We headed north for the day.  My mom’s family was from a little place between Erie and Meadville called Cambridge Springs.  We ran into a little bit of unexpected weather in the form of snow.  Once we crossed the Crawford Co. line it started laying on the ground and was coming down pretty hard for a while.  There’s no (close) family left in the area, but we visited the cemetery where my grandparents are buried and put flowers on the graves then headed to one of two pumpkin farms in the area that go all out for Halloween.  We’d planned to visit both, but it was so cold, wet and miserable that we didn’t even do half of what was available at the one.  We bought pumpkins, apples and cider and decided to skip any more outdoor activities.  After a nice hot lunch, we jumped back on the interstate and headed to Grove City and the outlet mall.  Everyone had cell phones with them so I turned the kiddos loose with cold, hard cash in their pockets and enjoyed several leisurely hours of shopping.  I managed to pick up a few Christmas gifts, including one of Tim’s big gifts.  Last year he told me he’s always wanted a yellow Nautica jacket, so at the time I looked at the department stores.  Depending on the style, they were from $250-$350!  I was able to find one at the outlet (not a parka, but fully lined and as heavy as Tim will ever want) for $89.99.

Yesterday I did absolutely nothing but sprawl on the sofa and read until noon.  I didn’t even get dressed till then.  Nice.  I did major grocery shopping in the afternoon and Tim went along to help out…without being asked!  Megan asked for tacos for supper so that’s what we had and spent the evening watching television (the Steelers kicking K.C.’s butts!).

Blinkie by LilMsGlitter

STEELERS, 45 - CHIEFS, 7

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And to my friends in Michigan….Lions and Tigers….and they’re winning….oh my!  Not a bad week in the Motor City at all.

CLICK HERE!