No Beans, No Potato Salad

When the Magellan Maestro 4250 suddenly went black and seemed not at all interested in being revived, we found ourselves without a safety net: NO US Atlas. Huh. AND no map of Kentucky, which was kind of bad because we were on the border of Tennessee and Kentucky. Outside Paducah, on hwy 24, going around a region called "The Land Between the Lakes." The lakes being Kentucky Lake and Barkley Lake. Got it?

So we decided what better thing to do than just eat lunch? And right down the road, on the way to a lock and dam, was a BBQ place.

Knoth's. That's what it was.

I opened the side door to the place and immediately said to Lis, "This smells like a good BBQ place." An older lady behind the counter greeted me and smiled and I said, "But is the tea sweet?"

"No. But I can sweeten some for you," she said.

And so we commenced to telling the other waitress at the counter about our plans for a picnic lunch by the Barkley Lock & Dam and she helped us figure out what we wanted. "Anything we have on the menu you can take away," she said. "But we don't have beans or potato salad." That was just fine with me.

While they put together our lunch, we wandered around and read the signs posted all over the walls. As I gathered up the sacks, I asked the waitress if she gets a lot of grief about not having beans and potato salad.

"Well, when he (she gestures across the restaurant) opened the place in 1964, there were no beans or potato salad. The menu is still exactly the same as it was. It's worked just fine."

I said, "I just asked because I see you have it printed on the back of your shirt."

Her friendly expression changed to mirth and she leaned in and patted my arm. "Oh! We have new shirts printed up each year and one year we put that on there just to be funny! It's my favorite one," she said.

Then she told me about one customer a while back that was kind of grieving her about beans and potato salad. "I told him we've never had it and that's that," she said. "Then I turned around and showed him the back of my shirt."

She said the customer seemed a bit puzzled, so she turned around again and pointed to her back.

"I don't understand what you are showing me," he said.

"So I turned around to her (points to the other waitress) and said, 'What does it say on my shirt?'" She told me.

"Catering," the other woman said.

And she gave a big laugh and leaned in and patted my arm again. What a great story!

So we went to the lock and watched some barges go through, ate a fantastic lunch and then got back in the car. Magellan was clearly considering retiring. Screen still black. As we drove back to the highway, I played with it and hit 'reset' a few times. Finally, just as we pulled in to a truck stop to buy an atlas, it came on.

I still bought the atlas. It's just dumb to fly without a net.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about the hitchhiking I did in Mt. Vernon, IL.

Who Is This?

Today I went shopping for a SKIRT.
To wear to a WEDDING.
A wedding I invited MYSELF TO.
And with the SKIRT I bought a long NECKLACE
And DRESSY SANDALS.

hm.

Brother Becky's kid is getting married while I'm visiting Minnesota. To be honest, I don't even know which kid it is. Don't know if it's the boy or one of the girls. I suspect it's the oldest girl. The wedding is July 5.

Brother Lis told me I have to go with them if I'm going to be in town. "I was not invited," I said. "Well, that's because you live in South Carolina," she said. "You know she just didn't want to seem to be asking for a present. The rest of the brothers will be there."

So we called Becky. "I hear you're having a party!" I said. "Can I come?" She sounded delighted, so there you are.

I told my friends here about the wedding. "I suppose I can't wear slacks," I said.
"NO!" was the resounding reply.

The whining commenced.

Finally today I decided to just pop into Coldwater Creek and have a look around. I decided to give it 30 minutes, tops. Tambri rode along. Right off the bat we found a long, brown skirt and a cool, embroidered white blouse. Tambri threw a necklace on the pile just as I was paying. Walked across the parking lot to get dressy sandals at Off Broadway. And so in 60 minutes I was ready.

I sent a text to Rena, who had promised to take me shopping tomorrow.
"Mission Accomplished. Skirt, shirts, shoes, and shiny bling," I said.
"Who is this?" she texted back.

Text to Sarah...same thing.
"Who went with you?" she texted back.

Sheesh. Do they know me or what? I got good buds. And now I'm somewhat excited about the wedding.

And so that's what's going on here. Monday morning I run down to Columbia to pick up Lis, who is visiting her in-laws. We'll drive to Nashville to stay the night with Chris and then stop in Bloomington, IL Tuesday night. Should be in Minnesota by Wednesday.

I finished work last Thursday. I report back July 31. I plan to play as much as possible in the next month.

Hearing the Un-Hearable

I bought a remote bark control to try to gain some sort of ground against Bear's barking. It's the territorial, you-are-walking-in-front-of-my-propity barking.

It works.

Too well.

Nate and his girlfriend can both hear it. They call it the "Devil Box."

But they don't bark, either, so I guess it works really well.

Leavings

Last night was Tony's last Friday dinner with us. He leaves for Aynor, SC (35.1 miles from the BEACH!) on Wednesday. At Taylor's suggestion, I made a batch of homemade chicken noodle soup...Tony's favorite. I did a twist on the noodles this time, though. Because of a shortage of flour, I used half Masa flour. They turned out well, and I think I may do that more often. They are a sort of unappetizing gray color, though.

After supper I shot some portraits of him, which I have not uploaded yet. I'm hoping to get a really nice one to give to some of our church members. He's become my little brother and also a sort of son to a couple of the ladies at church. So I hope to have a nice one I can use to print 8x10s and give them away. Sometime this weekend I have to write a story about him. It will be column, not a news story. And it will have quite a few examples of how he's managed to crawl into our hearts to reside.

I have another few days of work this week. I've lost track of how many days I owe the district, but I'm pretty sure it's 4 or 5, so I'll work all next week and be done of the summer. Sort of. I'm organizing our vault of student records, and I won't have time during the school year, so if I don't get it completed this week I know I'll stop in later on to finish up. Taylor and I will be going to Minnesota for a couple of weeks, so it'll probably be late July before I stop in there again.

We have records of every Indian Land student dating back to 1923. That includes not only graduates, but also drop-outs and withdrawals. I've already moved the graduate files to plastic totes with lids so that the records won't be damaged if there's a fire and they get sprinkled. Now I'm working on the drop-out/withdrawal files, which are held in several 4-drawer file cabinets. Most of the drawers are too full to get your fingers into, so when you get a request for records it's hard to pull the file you want. I've decided to pull out all the ones that are more than 10 years old and put them in plastic totes too. For now I'm piling those totes on top of the cabinets, with the hope that I can get facilities management to build me more shelves up there.

The drop-out files are not filed by date, just alphabetically. So this necessitates pulling each file and checking inside to see if there is some sort of clue as to what year they left. I generally don't read students files -- just pull them, get what I need, and get out. But in some cases I have to search for a date and this can lead to some interesting finds. Most of the time there is no reason given for dropping-out or any mention of where the student went when they withdrew. But occasionally I find a poignant comment that gives me pause.

One file said that this 6th grader had been withdrawn from our school for "failure to report." Scribbled across the page was "Ran Away." And in another file was a request for a transcript a couple of years ago from the Ohio Department of Corrections. The request said that they had an inmate who indicated he'd attended Indian Land High School in the 70s and now wanted to pursue his GED.

And there are others that indicate how much personal attention our students receive. I found a note written by my friend Trish when she taught second grade many many years ago. A student of hers was moving to a new state and Trish wrote a brief note to the new school telling them what a delightful little girl the student was, and that she's an excellent student, but needs to get more sleep.

And now it's time to go to Jazzercise. And then maybe a little shopping this afternoon.

Sox

My life is pretty much a continuous battle with socks. Oh sure, I have the usual battle with pairs going into the laundry and only singles coming out. But the main problem I have with socks is finding them where they are not meant to be.

The other day I sat down in the downstairs bathroom and there, out of the corner of my eye to my right, behind the trashcan, was a pair of socks.

I decided to leave them there.

For two days they lay there. Finally I gave up and put them in the laundry. As I grumbled my way back downstairs from the laundry room, I scooped up my keys and went out to car to go to Jazzercise.

On the floor of my car, between the front seat, where two pair of my own athletic socks.

People who live in glass houses...

The Turnip is your friend

Listen to the dog barking in the background and then the abrupt end...is that a gunshot?

I Think Bear Saw the White Light

Some may think I was being overly dramatic, but I have to tell you I've seen many pets near death in my life (when in high school I helped out a veterinarian twice a week) and I'm quite certain I nearly lost my puppy last Tuesday.

We got up and walked at 5 a.m. Tuesday like we usually do. We were rounding the last leg of the block when Bear stopped to investigate what looked like a paper towel on the curb. He's a fast little devil and before I could yank him back he had it in his mouth. I snatched him up and stuck two fingers in his mouth to flick the object out. I had it in my grasp but he swallowed before I could get it out. He had some kind of slimy drool dripping from his lips. My thought was "egg... paper towel."

We continued on. About 20 or 30 feet later he started heaving and spit up something on the opposite curb. It was still dark and I didn't really stop to look at the item but it seemed like maybe he'd spit up as much as he'd taken in, so I was good. He was good.

But he wasn't. As we came around the corner toward our house he started slowing down and then finally plopped down. This? Never happens. He's still pretty much a puppy. Incidentally, it was his first birthday on Monday.

I got him into the house where he spread out on the tile floor and went still. Very, very still. His respiration slowed and his heartbeat slowed even more. I bent over him and tried to turn him over and he felt like molten lead. His eyes were glazing over and he really looked bad. It was 5:30 a.m.

I ran upstairs to put on clothes (I was pretty much wearing my pajama top and sweatpants) and told Bob I was going to rush Bear to Charlotte to the Veterinary ER. I didn't know exactly where it was, but had a general idea. He asked if he should come and I said "yes," but then it became obvious that he would want to brush his teeth and put on clothes. I told him I couldn't wait. He put Bear in the car next to me and I lit out.

I called Sarah as I drove down the road. She was fast asleep, but popped wide awake when I told her something was wrong with Bear. She told me where the clinic was. As I drove toward Charlotte, Bear didn't seem to be getting any worse, but he was not getting better, either. He was just lying there, eyes partially opened and still.

I turned onto Westinghouse and then onto Tryon and he suddenly sat up and looked around. As we pulled into the parking lot of the ER, I saw one vehicle there and it was lit up and unlocked. I carried him into the building, but he was not prone by this time. He was up, looking around, and I was carrying him upright with my hand between his front legs and on his chest. He seemed alert.

No one came to the desk when I entered. I wandered around the clinic, but did not go through the "Authorized Personnel Only" doors. I called "Hello? Hello?" several times. By this time Bear was wanting to get down. So I snatched one of their disposable rope leashes off a hook on the wall and walked him around more, still calling out. No response.

So we went back outside and wandered around on the grass, Bear acting completely normal and me watching his every move.

He seemed fine. I told him we'd go home and then see Dr. Curtsinger later if he was still not feeling well. He seemed to think that was a good idea, going over to the car and looking up at me to be put in.

And so we drove home.

He was fine the rest of the day, although pretty quiet. Especially considering we still had my parents and their dog, and sister Julia and nephew Jake all here. I took the day off. There was just too much stuff going on, with Bear and the visitors and Dad's brake problems. And Nate had an interview with the Leroy Springs Foundation about their loan program. Throughout the day Bear stuck close to me, but he does all the time, and I periodically looked at him and said, "I'm glad you're not dead."

The next day I went back to work. We had an all-day planning retreat off-site and at 4:45 Nate called and said, "I think we should take Bear to the vet. He's acting weird. He doesn't act happy to see me and he just lays there." So I told him to pile him in the car and drive straight up to Curtsinger. I'd meet him there. Nate walked in just as they were closing up shop, but they very cheerfully turned stuff back on and ushered him in.

They ran a bunch of bloodwork and determined he had no serious system issues. "He's quite depressed though," they said. "Definitely not our Bear." The final verdict was that whatever he ingested probably had irritated his esophagus and stomach. They gave him fluid under the skin to pep him up a bit and then a shot of something to sooth his gastrointestinal system.

Bear was back to normal in just a couple of hours and by the next morning he was is usual peppy self. Curtsinger's office called to ask about him and they were relieved to hear of his recovery. And here I will tell you: there is no reason that you can't have a vet that treats your pet like a valued member of the family. If your vet doesn't give you this kind of personal attention, then fire him or her.

So. Where Was I?

Oh yeah.

Monday morning came and the lingering smoke from the night before had pretty much cleared. There was still a slight tinge of burned bean odor in the air, but for the most part things seemed pretty good. I went to work, arriving at 6:15 a.m. We do 4 10-hour days in the summer. I owe 2 weeks and a day to the district. But I'll be dragging those days out for a quite a while, as I planned to take a day or so here and there to visit with my sister and to work the primary election for Cassie.

Mom and Dad said good-bye to us Sunday night, planning to head out of their campground early Monday morning to begin the trek back home to Minnesota.

I started in with the post-school clean-up and shut-down. This necessitates quite a bit of running around the building and also a lot of file-shuffling in our records vault. The vault is nice. It's quiet and there are no phones in there. Unfortunately, there is no cellular signal in there, either. So whenever I've been in there a while, I go back to my desk to check my cell and my desk phone to see if there were calls.

At 8:30 I happened to be at my desk when my cell rang. It was Dad. "We are at Food Lion," he said. "The brakes aren't working on the camper. Do you think your mechanic can help us?"

I called Derek Patterson and told his receptionist the situation. They said they'd take Dad right away and I knew if they couldn't fix the problem, they'd get him to the right place. So I sent Dad up the road about a mile and went back to the vault.

A couple of hours later I checked messages and had one from Dad saying they were stuck at the mechanic and couldn't get back to our house. They needed a ride and couldn't find Nate. The message was 2 hours old. Hmmm. So I called and they had finally found him and were back at my house. They needed to take it to an RV repair place in Charlotte and didn't have a way to get it up there. So called my friend Steve, who is a home handyman. He was around and they did some more diagnosing and testing. Mom and Dad ended up staying until Wednesday morning getting it all done.

During all this time I was getting text messages from Julia saying they were stuck at the airport in Minneapolis. Needed a new plane. Then needed flight attendants. I never understand why flight attendants can't just go to the new plane with the passengers. I told her not to worry about being late getting here...I'd given her bed to Mom and Dad!

So as you can imagine Monday night was pretty chaotic. Everyone was here and I don't even remember what we fed them all. I'm glad Mom and Dad stayed a couple of days. They hadn't seen Julia since February, so they caught up a bit.

Tuesday morning, however, I had an emergency with Bear that really shook me up for a while.

A Night to Remember

So. The party has ended. The people had all gone home. Mensa Boy and I were tidying up as much as we are willing to, when I said "I think I'll clean the oven."

I checked in there. Nothing had been left. It was dirty, but seemed okay to go. So I shut the door and hit "Clean."

After 20 minutes, black sooty smoke began pouring from the oven vents. Mensa Boy was starting to get extremely nervous and was opening windows and setting up the fan to blow the smoke out the kitchen window.

After another 10 minutes, we started to worry that the smoke was getting thicker and was very acrid. It seemed somewhat toxic. All I could really tell MB was that it would have to burn off. The other alternative would have been to cut power to the kitchen. So we decided to wait a few minutes more.

Finally after a total of about 45 minutes, the smoke seemed to be stopping. But we still had a lot in the air downstairs. And it really reeked pretty bad. I was worried enough that I wondered if we might sustain smoke damage to the furniture.

But the fire/smoke thing turned out to be just the beginning of a series of events that would keep us on edge for a couple of days. Stay tuned.

It's all OVER!

The boy is graduated, the party has been thrown. Thank you notes are the next thing on the agenda. I thought the red eye on this photo was just too humorous to correct!

Graduation was Friday afternoon at Winthrop Coliseum. The venue was really too large for a small school like ours (only 100 graduates), but it was pretty with all the red of the Winthrop Eagles basketball team, and the setup really seemed intimate. I liked it better than the auditorium we've used in years past, which has always seemed dark, run-down and haunted. But the coliseum cost us $3000 more too.

Nate looked quite mature and calm during the ceremony, which went off without a hitch. I was more nervous about the ceremony than I was about Nate graduating. I was in charge of the diplomas and I think I checked them something like 11 times to be sure they were laid out on the table in the correct order and that we had one for each graduate. We had a graduate decline to participate the day before the ceremony, and another show up unexpectedly, so there was much shifting of seating arrangements and all that.

After commencement we all went to Olive Garden for a great meal. Nate's girlfriend Erin came with us, as did Tony. Olive Garden does very well with service for large groups, which I find remarkable considering that they don't take reservations.

Then Mom and I popped over to some shops to see if I could find crops and tees to wear for the open house Sunday. That was harder than I thought. I had a hard time finding crops in my size at all of the stores we were in.

Saturday was errand day and prep for the event. It was blistering hot too, which made me worry a bit about it being too hot for the party the next day.

Sunday we did the church thing and I had the beans baking all day. We retrieved 5 huge trays of bbq pork from the fire department cooler, along with 1 1/2 gallons of sauce. I think the biggest stressor was worrying about how to get the right amounts heated up to serve and how to keep the rest safely cool. Mom made a big batch of cole slaw from the recipe I managed to get from the Masonic Lodge...the only cole slaw I've ever had that I like.

The afternoon clouded up and we had some lightning for a few minutes. But by 3 or 3:30 it all looked good. So we scattered tables and chairs around the back yard and people started pouring in around 5.

Altogether we had more than 60 folks here. I only know this because I bought 60 cups and we had 2 left. But I know there were more because the posse showed up with wine around 6:30 and we used wine glasses. And there were some graduates here, who got special "Class of 2008" glasses I had for them.

The real action happened after the party. Tune back in for details. I promise, the blog will be updated more regularly now. Really.

Burnett Garden

BurnettGarden_0187
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Yes, we're still alive. Nate will graduate on Friday, if I let him live that long. Mensa Boy seems to have JUST ABOUT conquered influenza. Taylor and I are just coasting along...he's primarily on poop patrol, I'm shopping and planning for the open house on Sunday.

But today I got to go to June Burnett's house and take photos of her garden for the newspaper. She and her garden will be in Southern Living magazine in July and our papers want to write a story about the story. Delightful lady, beautiful home. Mom and I went and spent 90 minutes with her walking around and talking plants and trees and shrubs and cats.

Yellow Roses

YellowRose
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I planted this rose bush last year and I'm proud to say it survived the nightmare that was my flowerbed then, a rest in the woods for a week, and then a transplant to the newly-conditioned bed. My first bloom of the summer. Walmart: $5. I shot this 3 or 4 days ago and have had several other blooms from this plant since then.

Yesterday I was buddy Tambri's "glitter girl." We put together the signs and art for the backdrop for the recital, which is next Saturday. It will be a long, grueling day as we set up, have dress rehearsals, then the show, then clean up. I plan to extract my pound of flesh from her two weeks after that when we do Nate's open house.

And speaking of open house, I think now I'm going to change the time. Yesterday I went to a local church's BBQ fundraiser and it was pretty warm. I started really thinking about our back yard and realizing that we ought to move the open house to 4 or 5 o'clock, when the sun gets over the trees. Otherwise it will be too hard on everyone to be out there. Then they will all pile in here, which I definitely don't want!

And I've really been thinking about Nate's cake. I wanted to do something different, but I couldn't figure out what. Finally it occurred to me that I should have his Erskine acceptance letter scanned on top of it. I'll order a sheet or half sheet and then we'll make cupcakes and frost them in Erskine colors. I'm pretty excited about that. But I pulled the letter out and it's kind of bad looking. It was obviously folded up before the ink had already dried, so we've got quite a bit of smearing. Tambri suggested copying it on a color copier first to see if that would clear it up, but I think I'm going to call Erskine tomorrow, tell them what I'm up to, and see if they'd mind doing me a new one on plain, untextured paper. I'm willing to be they would.

Today the cleaning lady comes at 4 to walk the house and give me an estimate. I will be so glad to have a "big clean" done.

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. It will be a quiet, standard Sunday here, I'm sure. Mensa Boy is not around and I think Nate is working all day. I'm reasonably certain the guys have not thought about getting cards or anything. That's alright.

Testing Vortex

Testing Vortex
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I shot this at the end of a long morning of Advanced Placement testing yesterday.

I recently set my camera's "optimize image" setting to "more vivid." It makes my shots a little darker, but I like the way it makes the colors pop a little more. I cropped this to 5x5 and then applied a vortex blur, which I then erased from the student.

I have not done much shooting since I started the job, mainly because I haven't done any newspaper work since then either. I'm hoping to start doing more shooting for fun now that I don't feel compelled to work at home anymore. Today I am going to a church BBQ fundraiser to get some shots for the paper, though. I'm looking forward to that.

The patio project is nearing completion. Steve is coming today to do the mortar. I need to get out and take some shots of that, too.

Last night Taylor and I ate an odd supper and watched "Die Hard." He'd never seen it before. I asked him what he wanted for supper and he said wings. I knew I had a few. But wings take 90 minutes to bake so that they are crunchy. So I picked up sushi too. So we started grazing with sushi, then went to french fries, and then wings, topping it all off with movie candy. It was a fun night.

Tenth Avenue North - Love Is Here

My new favorite group. Their debut album is due for release in about 10 days.

Clematis

Clematis
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I planted one clematis last fall next to the copper obelisk that Taylor and I made in cub scouts a few years ago. But really I knew it would want company...at least two more. So this spring I bought two nice, big plants from Lowe's Home Improvement for about $8 each. This is the first bloom from the three...it's one of the spring plants. I'm starting to see nearly daily changes in my garden now. It's pretty exciting!

Things are hopping around here as I ramp up prep for Nate's Open House June 1. Friend Steve is putting in the flagstones now that will extend our existing patio out slightly beyond the pergola. It looks much more finished back there now. I guess I'll need to shop for some furniture next.

I've also secured someone to do a deep cleaning of the entire house before the open house, and she'll come every week or every other week after to help out. That will help a lot. I can manage the cleaning, but it's a stress I really don't need, and if I'm doing it when Mensa Boy is here, he feels obligated to help.

So. that's all I know for now.

Cap&Gown

Cap&Gown1
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

This is from yesterday as well. The best, probably, of all 250 shots. I did pull a major novice boner. When I uploaded all the pix I noticed that I'd shot them all with the ISO set at 1600. That made them all much noisier. However, the colors are good and the lighting seems to be working well. It was about 6 or 7 o'clock last night when we did this.

My idea was to do this task this weekend while Mensa Boy is home is because I knew Nate would have a really bad attitude about it. My theory was that Dad would be able to make it a little more fun and try to josh him into enjoying himself.

That totally backfired. MB is so inside-out getting ready for his trip to China that his head wasn't really in the game either. I could have actually killed them both!

But we did get a few and I hope to have another run at this today. If I can't make it work out then I'll ask a friend from school, who was Nate's Biology teacher, to get together with us and help.

Shooting Him

NateGradTaylor2
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

A semi-miserable photo shoot with Nate ended with about a half dozen shots where he actually looked like he might be enjoying himself.
We'll have another go tomorrow without the cap and gown. If I can't get something I really want, I have a friend at school that will shoot him. We are hoping to use these for the invitations to his open house June 1.

Walking Walking Seems so Easy Now

It's been a busy week. I am fully aware that I have not been keeping up with the writing since I took the job on March 25. I'm having a hard time figuring out when to write. I can not reach Blogspot from my computer at work, so blogging for a few minutes during a break in the mania is not really an option.

hmm....that reminds me...I think there's a way to post via email. I should check into that.

There is not really anything I can say about work on the blog. Which is pretty sad because that's where the action is. But since my position is in Guidance, there is a lot of confidentiality involved and so that pretty much means I can't write about stuff there. I could maybe write about my interesting coworkers, but this community is so small that I'd worry that someone would find it.

I will tell you, however, about my first passive-aggressive act at the office.

We have a parking lot that is not large enough to accommodate every staff member. If everyone is there, the lot is full and some have to park in the driveway.

So when someone parked their brand new SUV in a space-and-a-third on Monday, I thought that was a little thoughtless. Since I was driving Mensa Boy's wearable car (buddy Tambri calls it my fashion accessory), I went ahead and parked in the little space that SUV left and was careful to leave enough room for everyone to maneuver.

However, when the same situation happened again yesterday, it seemed more like a deliberate act on the part of the other driver.

So I parked my little fashion accessory as close to the door of the SUV as I could.

Then I went on a stake-out. I was able to see the scenario from our suite and I hung around until 4, when most of the faculty leaves. I will here honestly admit I was hoping for some huge, fat woman. Although I couldn't think of any on the faculty.

Pretty soon an old, bald, limping man came out and squeezed himself in there.

I have to admit I felt a little guilty about that. But then this morning one of my coworkers told me the guy's limp was temporary. Caused by a car accident where he totaled his vehicle. Hence the new SUV.

Guilty no more.

Drinking Meeting

Interesting subject line.

drinkingmeeting
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Laundry Dreams

[darnit! I knew no one would take stuff out of the dryer. And here someone has left a kleenex in their pocket again. While I fluff the wrinkles out of these, I'll start a load of whites. For Pete's Sake! Why can't they shake the grass out of the socks before they put them in the basket? I guess I should just be glad they put them in the basket. Hey! Gimme that, you mangy cur! On second thought, here...let me open Taylor's door and you can deposit that pair of dirty underwear right on his bed. Hmm...I wonder if this shirt should be washed in hot? ach...what do I care? It's not mine.]

"Good morning and welcome to NPR news!"

stretttchhh. hmm...I wonder if I should start a load of laundry this morning? I don't think I need to. I think I'm all caught up.