Vacation

 I know it's been awhile since I posted, but I am having one heck of a time uploading pictures.  If I take them on my phone I have to download them to my picture folder then upload them into Picassa then hope I can transfer them into here.  It is a lot easier with my i-pad, but I didn't use it so much on vacation because it is bigger and bulkier.

We had a great vacation this year, though the house was a huge disappointment.  Advertised as "an extremely upscale home," it was anything but.  The deck furniture was old and rusty, the air conditioning did not cool the house, the internet did not work, the windows were dirty, the oven was filthy, the dishwasher broke, and the decks had nails sticking out which cut Erin and Corinne's  feet. In addition, when we arrived there was dried blood on the deck and down the steps.  Since there was no hose at the house, John bought a hose, scrub brush and bleach and cleaned the decks.  He also shoveled out all of the sand that was accumulated around the pool when we arrived.  On Friday a young fellow came to clean the pool, saying he was the owner, and complained because there was sand in the pool.  John told him there was no hose to clean and rinse the decks, and he had to buy one to wash the sand away from the pool.  The young man said they did not have a hose because the renters left the water running and ran up their bills.  A little while after he left John went down to the pool and realized the young man had stolen the hose John had bought!  I called the real estate company and they contacted him and told him to bring back our hose, which he did sometime in the middle of the night.  In spite of the problems with the house, everyone got along great and we had a memorable vacation.  Next year, we are staying at a new house in Orange Beach, which is about ten miles from Gulf Shores.  It is right on the Alabama/Florida border.  Here are some pictures from the week:

As A Woman

Someone posted the quote below on Facebook, I think it is from Jon Stewart, and I thought it was worth reprinting:
   
"As a woman, Jenner can now look forward to her physical appearance, not her talents or mind, being the object of daily scrutiny. Should she ever need to work, she can look forward to earning roughly 77% of what a man makes. Should she ever face physical or sexual violence, she, not her attacker, will be treated with suspicion.

As a woman, Jenner will also have to get used to hearing not just new pronouns but other fun words like "shrill," "nagging," "bossy" and "emotional." And then, of course, there's the catcalling, which a "beautiful" woman like Jenner can now expect daily.

A person transitioning to live as her true self is a wonderful thing and America has come a long way toward accepting transgender people. As Stewart so aptly pointed out, though, the real struggle now is to bring up the lives of all women. On that front, there are still miles to go."

As the grand mother of seven girls, I worry about their future.  It bothers me that females have not come much further than they were in the sixties. Wayne and I love watching the Cardinals, but they still have Hardees commercials with barely dressed women eating huge burgers with slop running all over their bodies.  Last summer I saw complaints in the letters to the editor in the Post Dispatch, but they haven't stopped.  I supposed enough men watch them and support Hardees.  

Now direct TV has a television ad with a young, pretty, bikini-clad woman lying suggestively on the beach talking to a horse.  What in the hell does that have to do with direct TV?  These commercials are during sports casts and during prime time, which are viewed by young people.

Five on Friday (on Thursday)

1.  I finished school and working at school, and it's nice to be free. I did end up taking the final, mostly because I wanted to remember what I had learned and I knew I would never go back and review my notes if I didn't have to.  I was really nervous; I hadn't taken a test in over twenty ears, but I got a 99.  I was relieved because I didn't want to embarrass myself.

2.  We had a scare with Joe this week.  Tuesday evening we let him out and when he came in he was panting really hard and couldn't seem to lay down.  He paced around for about six hours; he went out around two in the morning, and was outside for about three hours.  We thought he had died.  It is so dark in the back of our yard so we couldn't see him and kept calling him but he didn't come in.  Finally, at about 5:30, Wayne saw him at the bottom of the steps and got him in.  He slept most of the day, but we noticed he seemed to be favoring his neck and yelping if we touched it.  By this morning he wasn't any better, so we took him to the vet.  We were worried that we'd be coming home without him, because he'll be 13 in Oct. and none of our Greys have made it to 13.  But, the vet said he thought it was a slipped disc and gave us three prescriptions to ease the pain.  Here he is before we went to the doctor's.

3.  We are usually in Gulf Shores the week before Memorial Day, but this year we are going in June so the kids won't have to take the grand kids out of school.  We usually go this week because the rental houses group a couple thousand after Memorial Day.  I'm anxious to be at the beach, but I'm really enjoying my peonies this week.  Usually they are just starting to bloom when we leave and drooping on the ground by the time we get back.  Here are a couple of pictures:

I also got some new cushions for my loveseat on the deck.  I got them at T J Maxx and liked them so well I went back this week to get more and they were gone.  I should know better; they sell out of stuff really quickly.

4.  We are going to Cincinnati next weekend for Julia's second birthday.  Her birthday is Monday, but they are waiting until the next weekend because they are having her party at their friends Polly and Bill's house, and they will be in Chicago this weekend for their grandson's birthday.  It's good for us so we can go to our niece Peggy's graduation party.  We usually miss graduation parties in May.

5.  I've been doing some sewing, mostly burp cloths.  I am going to make a costume for a friend from Meramec's daughter; she is a senior and doing a solo dance and can't find a costume she likes.  I got the material from them a couple of weeks ago but have not started because I'm a bit nervous.  I am working on Julia's birthday outfit--I'll post pictures next week when we go there.  Here are some of my latest burp cloths:

Springtime

Life has been pleasantly calm around here..  We've been working outside quite a bit.  I've been weeding the flowers bed between our driveway and the neighbor's for over a week, and I'm still not done. Our tulips have come and gone, and the peonies and irises are getting ready to bloom. It's a shame nothing was blooming yet on Easter.  Things have really started popping in the backyard.

We've been watching another series on Netflix, The Good Wife.  We never watched it when it was on Network TV, and it is fun streaming it and watching two or three episodes every day.  We've also been watching Call the Midwife on Sunday evenings.  I really enjoy that show.  We've also been watching the Cardinals non-stop.  They are doing really well so far this year.  I know they're in first place, but I'm not sure by how many games.

I've been buying stuff on the Webster Swap and trying to sell some stuff.  Friday evening some gal on the Swap asked if anyone could make some burp cloths for her for a baby shower the next day.  I wasn't doing anything but watching TV, so I said I could do it.  She said she wanted some cute and girly, and we messaged back and forth for a couple of hours.  It ended up that she wanted something very specific, not just cute and girly.  I finally figured out what she wanted and made four burp cloths for her, and I was up until two in the morning.  They don't know the baby's name yet, so she wanted the last name on one and an S on some.  They turned out pretty cute, but now I remember why I don't like sewing for people.  It's never worth the time or trouble. I like making what I want when I want.  Nevertheless, here are some pictures:

This is our last week of class, and my last week of working.  I told them I don't want to work this summer, and I don't think I want to work in the fall.  I got lots of calls to sub and got tired of feeling pressured into working when I didn't want to.  I also helped with the ESL placement testing, which I kind of liked.  I told Lisa, my friend who is ESL supervisor, that I wouldn't mind teaching a class in the fall.  It depends on whether or not she needs me, if all of her regulars do not return.