Tomorrow is December

I read this somewhere:


For Christmas, a person should receive:

• something they want
• something they need
• something to wear and
• something to read

So get those lists out.  And, excitingly enough, this morning after I had walked the dogs, a box appeared on the porch.  From Amazon!  Something I had ordered (gifts!) arrived in literally two days!  Consider me impressed!!!!!!


And, the Post Office says the last day to mail is December 15th ~ without any craziness.


Happy Holidays!


Love, Leslie

The Creation of a Diva

A lovely holiday was had by all, and reality has re-sunk back. 


I fixed Mom a fantastic spinach omelet this morning.  She eats about 10:30 am.  I went with Amy to the barn after the Hardins left.  I got home, asked Mom if she wanted anything.  "No, just a little wine and some of those nice chex mix things."


I met Holly and Paul at 5:30 for a small Happy Hour.  I got home at 8:30.  I asked Mom if I could get her anything.  Mom said "well, I never got any lunch or dinner.  I suppose I could have gotten up and gotten something." 


Never mind there is leftover turkey and stuffing from Nancy's in the refrigerator.  I did fix her some butternut pasta.  And more wine.  All easily accessible.


I just got a message from Carole - her tree is up and lighted and decorated.  I did order a couple more Christmas presents.  So I can't complain.


I was surfing on the tv and had the Wake Forest vs Duke football game - Jim has tickets.  But I also found that MASN is replaying the Sept. 5, 1995 game in which Cal Ripkin broke Lou Gehrig's baseball record.  Guess what I am watching.  The Orioles versus the Angels.  Love it.


And, love you.
~ Leslie

Happy Thanksgiving

Mom and I are waiting for Maren and Jesse to finish showering and dressing before we go to Nancy's house for Thanksgiving.  So I decided to send Mom some pictures to her ipad and to start the sharing of the madness that is our Thanksgiving.

Luckily, the weather has relented.  Yesterday, for the busiest travel day of the year, we had a ton of rain, some snow showers and some ice.  But today, it is gorgeous!!!!

Mom was going to make her famous chocolate log - but she has gotten tired and was not able to finish.  I think I am going to get the recipe and give to all of you for the future.  She asked for a pain pill because her shoulder was hurting.  I will have to keep an eye on her.

The lovebird was taking a shower in the sink this morning.

Our favorite 3rd year law student studying this morning.

Ok, time to take the dogs for a walk and get going - over the river and thru the woods, to Nancy's house we go...........

Nancy had a LOVELY Thanksgiving dinner!  Mike, Maddie and Caroline were there so the company was fabulous and the food was unbelievable!!!!!!!

Amy took this.  Honestly, I don't know how they ate with the phones in their hands!!!

Drew folded all the napkins into the Artichoke.  

Jessie and Maddie

Zoe and her Dad - a fabulous photo!!!!!!!

Mike and Caroline

It was such a nice dinner - turkey, brussel sprouts, tenderloin, green beans, pecan pie and Ginger cheesecake.  Hmmm Hmmm.

It was so nice and time flew by too fast.  

We also heard that Carolyn was a good doctor and helped with Chris and his family who arrived in San Antonio with a whopping case of the flu or food poisoning.  I guess no one enjoyed the caramel Caroline's cake that Mom sent.  Oh well.  I do hope everyone feels better!!!

We also did our annual name draw for the sisters.  Carole - I sent yours out in today's mail. Mike was the official assistant and keeper of names in case anyone forgets who they have.

And in that thought...everyone needs to get their lists out.  Get cracking!

I got the candles in the windows today, one decoration down, a million to go!

Happy Holidays!!!!!!!
Love, Leslie

Surprise ~ Gobble, Gobble

Today, the day before Thanksgiving, I got up, started finishing the cleaning that I did not finish yesterday.  Washing the quilts on the sofas, cleaning the bird cages......I called Lori to tell her the weather and to drive safe.  Got the answering machine.  Hmmmmm.  Not at home.  Then, I texted Maren and said the same. 
Maren texts back and says "on the road".  Great, it is 11:22am and I figure they will be here at 4:30ish.  I finish the bird cages and get ready to get in the shower.   The dogs start barking.  (I had a little niggling thought......).
Yep.  They were here. 
Those dogs got on the road at 6am and didn't call!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least I was 98% ready!!!!!!!!!!
They have taken Mom out to lunch - now I can finish up and go and get some snow melt stuff for the steps.  It is icy out there.
May you have no surprise surprises!


Love, Leslie

The Holiday Ho Ho Ho

T'was the night before the Thanksgiving holiday travel day......I had such plans.  Finish what I was doing upstairs, make some drop offs to the Lutheran Mission, Home Depot.  I went to the Lutheran Mission and forgot to drop off one bag.  Went to Home Depot with 5 bags of old tree lights.  Home Depot had a box there 3 days ago where one could drop off old tree lights to be recycled.  I saw the box.  I saw lights in the box.  Today when I go with my lights, no one knows.  A worker there told me to "throw them in the trash".  That was the whole point - recycle!!!!! Not put them in the trash!!!!!  No happy holidays there!


Oh well.  And........

                                       Happy Birthday to Nancy!!!!!!

Mom started to make the famous Chocolate Log.  She made the cake part - I went to run errands while she was baking - she was fine.  I got home a couple of hours later, she is exhausted and sitting in the library with her eyes closed.  The cake is wrapped in one of my Oriole Orange T-shirts.  She couldn't find any other clean towel (never mind the ones in the middle drawer of the island).  I am not sure how she found the T-shirt.  Oh well, some questions shouldn't be asked.  She came into the kitchen at 8:30pm to make the whipped crème.  I got her to fix that tomorrow.

I hope your Thanksgiving holiday is happy, and full of love and laughter.  And, safe travel.  Evidently our 20 degrees to 72 degrees is turning to a major snow - all in 5 days.  Mother Nature is definitely capricious!

Enjoy,

Leslie

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

25 degrees and holding...it is darn cold.  But, it does put me more in the mood for the holidays.  It really doesn't feel like Thanksgiving when it is warm. 

The end of summer. 

I re-did the front porch -

 

 

 

I put blankets on the wicker furniture - I am sure somebody is sleeping on them at night - there are 4 neutered feral kitties that live next door and I think they sleep over.  It is comfortable and warm.

 

I am taking a page out of Amy's book and am "working" on the middle bedroom closet:

 

 

You can't tell, but I have taken a big box of recycling out.  And made a place in the closet for the vacuum cleaner.  I will have it completed by tomorrow. 

 

Oh, here is a picture of milkweed - what it looks like after the pods blow up - hopefully, it will reseed and bloom in the summer.

 

Milkweed - butterflies love it.

 

 

OK ,  now for the official holiday notice.....................

 

Yes, I do know how to take a picture with the iphone.

 

What does this mean?  It means that I will be taking pictures over the holidays and YOU PEOPLE (you know who you are!!!) need to know that it will be happening.  So, dress accordingly, bathe, and wear make-up.  If I get some good ones, I can be encouraged to stop.  Consider yourself fairly warned. 

 

 

 

See you on Wednesday!

 

Love, Leslie  

The Horror and the Shame

All is well.  I took Mom to the eye doctor.  She got the shot.  I brought her home, gave her a pain pill and a glass of wine.  I went to the grocery store and she requested the Autumn squash soup and turkey cranberry sandwich on flat bread from Panera Bread, so I got it for her.
Never mind that it is raining and miserable and I had to take the dogs out - and I got soaked and when I turned the heat on in the car, she reached over and turned it off.  Honestly, she is cold everywhere except in the car.  Go figure.
Now, I took her evening meds to her and her drink - asked her how she felt and asked if she wanted to go to bed.  Nope, she wants to stay up and watch JAG.  Which she watches every night. 


Sweet dreams.
Love, Leslie

First Freeze

Wooo, is it nippy!!!! It was a lovely 26 this morning when I took the dogs outside.   Some of the tropicals on the front porch finally got frozen.  On the last warm day, as the front was working its way in, I took this picture at the barn:

And Amy has been working so hard and here are some pics of the changes in the master bath:

This is the spray painted plastic medallion for the cute chandelier over the tub.

The chandelier.

Now you can see the new color of the walls with the chandelier.  Remember, the walls were this gray green faux painting - dungeon look.

Everything looks so nice.  She also had the blue carpeting taken out from upstairs and replaced it with a lovely light beige.  It looks great.  Someone was supposed to look at the house today, but I haven't heard how that went. 

Found out.....they loved the house and asked "if it had been staged"!!!!!  I did not mention that when the carpet guys pulled up the runner on the stairs, they found that the installer or old home owners had used a staple gun and literally stapled the runner to the treads.  There were at least 30 staples on each tread.  Why would anyone do that?  And Amy, the hard headed one who can do everything on her own.....why does that sound so familiar?  Anyway, she pulled them all out last night, so it could be shown at 11 am.  Blood and blisters are her new best friends.


I am taking care on Nancy's critters and she has gotten all of her Halloween down, but she has an enormous bin of candy left -

That is ALOT of candy!


And, check it out, Amy sent this picture of a fox in her back yard!!!!!

I took Mom and the dogs out to run errands today and now I need to fix mom some lunch.  I realize this is a bit boring, but it is nice to have no crisis at the moment.  I hope I didn't jinx anything.  Oh, an update:  Mom found her ID's!  She says that I overlooked them in one of her bags.  Hmmmm.  I will take the hit.


Enjoy your day!
Love,
Leslie

What A Giant PITA ~ and I Don't Mean Bread!!!

Amy just called and said that the Carbuncle has decided that he is not going to do the things that he verbally agreed to.  She is very upset and mad.  Worse case scenario, she gives in and walks away.  Honestly, what a mean spirited, liar and a cheater.  I know, I keep thinking karma, karma, karma.  And then I had a thought.......she should just tell the Carbuncle that then she just wants to stay married and leave apart.  Let him stew on that.

In all the middle of this, I am cleaning out the kitchen pantry.  And, it is just like everything else.  And, I opened, recycled and trashed.  One giant black trash bag for recycling and one kitchen trash bag for trash.  And no matter how much you take out and how much space you think you gain, there is no extra space.  Why is that?

I do have one Mom story.  Yesterday, we were all ready to go to Mr. Fischer's funeral (a classmate of Dad's).  As we were going out the door, I asked if she had her ID ( I have learned my lesson of not having ID and going to the Academy!)  and, No, she didn't.  Which started the great search.  It turns out that it was my fault because I moved all of her purses upstairs and that since I took her ladder away from her, it was also my fault that it was difficult for her to put them on the top shelf of the closet. 

I went through all bags, purses, drawers, etc. and found no ID - and I mean no drivers license and no military ID.

I did remain calm and nice.  I got her to sit and relax.  Gave her a glass of wine.  Told her that all it meant was that we were not supposed to go to the funeral.  And that it would be ok.

And it was. 

Still haven't found the ID.  Amy said to be sure to check Mom's brown address book.  Of course, I do have to find it.

Oh well.  It certainly is never boring.

Love,
Leslie

Waiting for the Polar Vortex

Not much is going on ~ I covered the water faucet outside (in preparation of the bitter freeze we will be getting) and I will move the pots off the deck (so it is easier to shovel the snow).

Do I believe the dire warnings?  I guess I have to - and as Carole reminded me:  Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.  Which was originally told to me by Frank Hook at Georgia Southern.  And it was on the exam.

Here is what today looks like.  This picture was taken on my phone, sent to Amy, who resent it to me via e-mail.  Sort of like the new Pony Express.

This is in the driveway looking at the French neighbors yard.  Doesn't look like the freeze is coming, does it?

And here is Melanie - who had 3 socks in her mouth.  I believe they are her security blanket.

I just served Mom her lunch - a lovely shrimp salad on spinach, crackers and a cookie.  With the obligatory glass of white wine.  It is the life.

Much love,
Leslie

Banging Ones Head Against Any Hard Surface

I just spent a couple of hours with the mother ship (as Amy calls her) - dealing with Verizon, Navy Federal Credit Union and USAA.  Don't get all upset, I believe everything is taken care of .....I hope.

I spoke to a lovely guy named Kevin at Verizon and Chad at NFCU.  Mom likes to pay her bills on line with her ipad.  And I am going to tell you that she CANNOT SEE the print!!!!! So, I got on line on my laptop so I could follow what she was doing.  

We had to change some passwords because she couldn't remember them and YES I wrote them down.  

Now she wants me to bring her some wine.  At least I don't have to deal with a voice on the phone to do that.  Bottoms up!

Love,
Leslie

Lots Going On

Most of you may know by now, that Amy has decided to put her house on the market.  She is making Excellent changes in her life now that the carbuncle is out.  (Thank goodness for automatic spell check, because I spelled carbuncle incorrectly - I guess I could use the easier to spell acronym Tim, but I like to keep it professional.)

Here is a change - the wall paper boarder in the kitchen is gone!

 

And, it does look better already!  The next steps are the master bath walls and light fixtures. Amy is having this done by professionals - read faster and better than family.

And, as a holiday touch, my Christmas cactus plants are beginning to bloom ~

See the pretty pink bloom and there are buds all over!

And here is the orchid plant - note the bud on the tip of the stem and the new stem with the leaf right next to it.  It is very exciting and means that I am taking good care of Mom's orchids.

 I need to get going - have to run an errand for Amy, close of the water outside (it was 31 last night) and clean out the refrigerator.  Such an exciting life I lead!

 

 

Much love,

Leslie

 

PS - this is being written on the newly cleaned and de-virused laptop!

 



I Wish I Had the Camera

This afternoon I was walking the dogs and I heard the mailman's truck.  So did Bennett.  He turned in the street to face the oncoming truck and planted his feet.  Luckily, the mailman loves the dogs and gave them the biggest dog biscuits they have ever had!  They are moochers!!


I took Mom to a new barbeque place - Mission Barbeque.  I really liked it - until Mom knocked over her diet coke over the table and into my lap.  It was my fault - since it was a new place, I did not see where the straws and tops to glasses were.  I now know.  But the barbeque was delicious!  And worth the wet.


Mom also made an appointment to have her hair done and a pedicure, but didn't tell me and then forgot it until we had 15 minutes to get there.  I am just glad I was showered and dressed.  You will be glad to know I did not fuss.


I really thought I had more to write about - but I guess not.  But I am also not looking for excitement.  Boring is good.




Oh, I also am the proud recipient of a virus on my new laptop.  I had the new Norton Security up and running, I don't open anything that I don't know what it is and I don't drift off into strange internet options.  The laptop is being fixed by a company in Annapolis, so I hope to have it back no later than Monday.  They just called me and said that "Yes, you do have a virus" ~ should I break out cigars?  I guess it is good that I have only had one in all these years.  I do hope it is not a trend.


Love,
Leslie


Friday update:  I have been on the phone several times with the Annapolis Geeks.  There was an issue with Norton - which makes me mad.  I had downloaded it and there had been a problem and a Norton person got involved and assisted me - they actually took control of the laptop and did the work. 


And, the weather here has turned again - brisk, windy, cold and supposedly the Polar Vortex returns next week - the temperatures are supposed to be in the 20's with a wind chill of single digits.  I better get ready - close off the water outside and other winter stuff. 

Election Day

Today is Election Day for Mid-Term elections ~ governors, senators, blah, blah, blah.  I went and voted and I had mom vote absentee, so all of that went off without any problems.  I am consciously NOT watching the returns and when I wake up tomorrow I will see what happened in the newspaper.  Maybe aliens will come down and take them all away.

Mom is being quite the busy bee - ordering all kinds of cables for her ipad, iphone, camera, etc, etc, etc.  I got involved and asked (that is my fatal flaw, I ask) what was the issue.  She wanted to use her old Sony camera to download her pictures onto her ipad.  Using an Apple cable.  It wasn't working.  I said that perhaps she could download from her laptop onto her ipad - which should be easier.  HA!  I did Google the question and it appears that iTunes can assist.  However, her laptop wasn't accepting iTunes, so I have to figure that out.  I am not sure why companies make things so hard, but they do.

Amy is trying to convince me to go and see Intersteller - I urged her to find someone else.  There must be some friend who wishes to see that movie.  Someone.

As I was working on the computer, Bennett came in and got up on the bed.  Then Melanie came in and managed to fit in.  It is a dog's life.

I put away all the Halloween - all that is left is some candy.  I am really wanting to start putting up Christmas, but I will hold back.  I did order some more gifts this evening.  Ho ho ho!

Love,
Leslie