JustLisa

Yesterday I read some about the "Secret" of the law of attraction where you bring back the same energy you put out. I think that is true so this morning I'm putting out a vibe that I can travel and take trips. Even bigger trips than 8 hour spontaneous ones to see my cousins.

My former coworker and her husband are now living in Italy and our outbound exchange student went to Italy this year. It sounds so romantic and the pictures look awesome. You know I have a thing about blue ocean water and white beaches. I am checking out Italian property, specifically beach oriented places. The old stone farmhouses near Tuscany have a certain appeal too. I wonder if somewhere in Italy, there is someone looking at farm ground in Iowa and dreaming of owning a John Deere? I actually wouldn't be surprised if there were.

Still focusing on a Florida vacation and trying to wish it into existence. I think I deserve a trip for my big FOUR-OH.

For my friends in the UK, if you want to join me in my dream of a Florida vacation, check out this cheap flight to Orlando. If I picked Orlando, I would certainly go for the smaller scale attractions and not the tourist traps. I want to go somewhere and relax, not fight crowds.

Today Em had a ball tournament (the last one!!) in Missouri, a little over an hour away. Her team ended up finishing third out of ten teams. On the way home, we stopped at Taco Bell where I had the following discussion with Ben.

Me: Benj, we should take a long trip this summer.
Ben: Yeah! We could go to Kansas City!! (KC is less than two hours away)
Me: Noooo, think BIIIGGGG, dude. Like Florida to the beach or something.
Ben: Oh, I could live with that.

Then I told him I wanted to go to Saint Augustine, the oldest colony in the US, blah blah blah and how it would be educational and fun. He said "Lisa, you lost me at educational." HA!

Tonight was the local Pheasant's Forever banquet and we decided to take C. since he's a teenager this year. We bought a bunch of raffle tickets and he bought one for a pellet gun. Todd bought some tickets to win the big Browning Gold Fusion something or other rifle. For all of our raffle tickets we ended up with a giant spray can of lubricating oil and a "hoot flute" turkey call thing. C. did win the pellet gun but that's it. No new rifle for Todd. Oh darn.

Came home and opened the big box that Faith had sent to Em for her room makeover. Pink goodness inside that made Em very happy. The most important piece was broken so we have to figure out how to salvage that. The box was packed very, very well and I have never had UPS deliver anything broken before. Frustrating.

Received my first complaint(?) about justlisa being an informercial pimped out to sell links or something similar to that. It was from a friend who I've told to kiss my ass on many occasions. This time will be no exception. Anyone who doesn't like it is more than welcome to send $60 a month for the orthodontist payment and I'll stop pimping links. Simple as that. I do what I have to do and try to make up for it with interesting entries such as this one. haha

Today we took a road trip down to Kansas City. It's been 20 years since I lived there. Back then I was a naive 19 year old, scared to death and homesick. Now I wish I lived there again.

As summer speeds towards us, we continue to talk about vacation plans and the possibilities. I have been putting back my extra money for a good long while specifically for a vacation and it just might be enough to get us out of the midwest for a change.

Emily and I both dream of a beach house or a rental home with a nice pool. Probably outside our budget but it's still fun to look. Orlando Vacation Rentals has one that she would just flip over. If this wasn't such a long way to drive, I'd rent the sucker and we'd just lounge around the pool and swim all day for a week.

I'm sure being that close to Disney and all things Orlando has to offer would also have to be done. Isn't there a Hard Rock Cafe there and Universal Studios. Yes, I see the dollar signs adding up. Like I said, it never hurts to dream and who knows, maybe we'll end up saving another year's worth of spare change. It's been 7 years since we took a real vacation so another year wouldn't be lethal. Well.. maybe..

For more Disney News, you can browse the articles page and learn more about things like cheap shopping at the land of Mickey. Don't even get me started on how much I love that mouse.

I've been spending time in the evenings trying to plan a vacation to the yet-to-be determined destination. I was looking at a new driving directions site that has public transportation best routes and walking directions. Unfortunately, it does not cover any of our potential destinations but just for fun, I plugged in our Boston office address to my boss' laundromat/dryclean business and it mapped out a walking route for me.

I also tried the bus route and subway route. On the walking and bus routes, I could choose shopping, dining or nearby attractions which brings up a page of those. That is really cool. If I walked from the office to the laundro, I could stop at Boston Lobsters and you can bet I would!

For the bus or driving, it shows traffic alerts along the route. There is a backup on one of the freeways and traffic is going 10MPH. My boss could use that information when he goes out to clients. So far it only covers 14 major US cities and also has London, England.

As the time draws near for our vacation, it's becoming apparent we won't be able to go far. Todd only gets a week off and I may need my vacation time for hand surgery. (I hope not!!) We all agree it needs to be somewhere with a cabin and probably mountains. Water is necessary be it a river or lake. Must have pool table and ping pong for the kids. My only big requirement is that it have either a porch with a swing or a hammock in the trees. Todd has no requirements I guess. He prefers to vacation without kids since we never get time alone. I won't vacation without my babies so he just has to deal. ha! Maybe next year just he and I can get up the guts to fly somewhere.

Every time I hear about rising gas prices, I just want to cry. As I said earlier, we did lock in our vacation and it's going to make things very tight. We discussed details today such as how we will pack food in the cooler rather than eating on the road. If gas prices go up too far, we may have to ration how much we eat.

Anyone have good advice for saving money on vacation? We already have most of our lodging reserved. I think I will throw out the idea of taking a tent so we can camp two nights as we make our way down and back. Dont know if there will be room for camping gear if we have to take food. bleh. Some day I want to have enough money that I can just plan without stress.

In related news, I am going to keep the house about ten degrees warmer this summer and start shutting down all the office equipment at night. That will be aggravating in the mornings since I don't have patience for machines to come up. It will be worth it in the long run. Not only will I save money but I will reduce our carbon footprint.

So I'm taking a break from important stuff, like chasing the dog out of the mud and have started reading about how Atlantis Was a Real Place, the Americas as per the following press release.

Press Release
Atlantis Was a Real Place, the Americas

The kingdom of Atlantis included North, South, and Central America. It was divided into ten countries or kingdoms and each country had its own King. One of the kingdoms was also called Atlantis. The King of Atlantis was the ruler over the other nine Kingdoms. The first ruler of the Kingdom was called Atlas. This is how Atlantis got its name.

The royal city of the kingdom was located within the country of Atlantis. Within the royal city there was a royal palace. Originally, three different moats surrounded the royal palace. Plato referred to the moat formation as three zones of water and two zones of land.

As time went by they covered over the moats and cut three canals through the peninsula on which the royal palace was located. The construction of the canals divided the peninsula and formed two triangular shaped islands. The island that held the royal palace was called Atlantis. That is why Atlantis is referred to as a continent, and city, and an island.

Read the short version of Plato’s story at www.atlantiskingdom.com to learn more about Atlantis and the Americas. Then read Plato’s Timaeus and Critias to get the complete story.

I have matched the terrain features that Plato wrote about with present terrain features found in the Tampa Bay area. Research shows that Plato described Harbour Island as the small island of Atlantis. You will find that Plato recorded and published the story just as it was told. He even recorded the discussions leading up to the story. You will also notice several obvious mistakes made in translating the story from Egyptian to Greek and from Greek to English. The biggest mistake occurred when travelers came upon a shoal of mud and thought it was left over from the sunken island. They were wrong. The continent of Atlantis did not sink.

You are invited to review the facts to see for yourself that the Americas, from South America to Alaska were once the kingdom of Atlantis, a single nation. The land formation is still laid out the same as it was over 11,000 years ago. It is best viewed from the air. See image.

Source: Dennis Brooks
www.atlantiskingdom.com

Now personally I believe that all the continents used to be one giant land mass that became separated over the centuries due to floods (don't get me started on the flooding!) and plate shift near the earth's core. Not sure I buy this Atlantis theory though.

Some of the research is very interesting, particulary the Bimini Road findings. After seeing the destruction that less than an hour of bad weather can cause, I am willing to believe almost anything. I read that Tampa, Florida may have been the former city of Atlantis and I'd think they would have found a lot of evidence of a prior existence when building the city of Tampa. In Iowa, they are constantly finding fossils from thousands of years ago every time they excavate for new roadways. Maybe they don't dig deep in Florida due to the water table.

I've not studied much about Plato or his writings so this is all pretty new to me. It's an interesting concept for sure and one that will give people something to discuss for years to come.

Nine days left of school. Twenty until vacation. I am so excited and determined to have a really good time.

Nine days left of school. Twenty until vacation. I am so excited and determined to have a really good time.

T minus 4 days until vacation and my mood has gone from absolutely estatic to desperate and is heading towards defeat. If you hit the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on. Doing that now. Every year something happens and our grand vacation plans get whittled back to yet another 3 hour trip to another place just like this only it will boast a zoo or a bigger lake. I have both heels dug in trying to not let that happen again. We've already cut this trip in half once and I will not do it again. Right now we are looking at having $7 a day per person to eat on. Everyone will learn to love bologna. We will have no money to actually do anything other than sit in the cabin and take in the surroundings. They will learn to appreciate the mountain views.

I said earlier that I was going to the beach come Hell or high water. Now I am simply whispering "Please God, let us have this one trip and deliver us home safely."

I am cleaning. That is how I deal with stress since I stopped smoking years ago. I clean and clean. I have washed a couple of walls, taken the birds outside and hosed them down and thoroughly cleaned their area of the living room. I scrubbed the shower and tub and the front entryway. I grew tired of cleaning so in a fit of optimism, I've begun to pack for vacation. It just has to happen. If it doesn't, my bottom will fall out. I'm so not kidding.

So the weather forecast for our vacation is thunderstorms. Every day. Until the day we leave. Then it will be sunny for three days. We'll be home then. If lightning strikes the hot tub that you're lounging around in outside, does it kill you? What if I wear rubber shoes? heh. I'm really only half kidding. I'm getting in the hot tub. Lightning be damned!

Vaca is going very well and I don't wanna come back home yet!! Everywhere we go, people ask where we're from and they always say something about corn or cows. Eva says "That's our job! We feed the rest of America!" I think Iowa needs a better gimmick.

Leaving the last motel and in a few hours we'll be back. I am not looking forward to the many loads of laundry that await me. Six people generate a ton of dirty clothes!

Everyone is all unpacked now and the last load of dirty laundry is in the washer. Now we can tally up all the damages and losses. Emily left her new pair of capris in the motel room at Mt. Vernon, Illinois. We'll never see those again.

Finished sorting out the various sacks and bags and seem to be missing one iPod cable. Each night we'd have three iPods, four cellphones, three cameras and two gameboys to plug in and recharge. I'm surprised we're just short the one cable and I'm almost certain we will come across it somewhere.

Finished cleaning out the truck this morning and found Ben's new sunglasses broken in the back seat. Another miracle since we spent over 40 hours with six people crammed in there.

Also gathered all the receipts and notes from everything everyone spent and it seems six people can quite comfortably travel over 2000 miles in a seven day span, stay in nice places. eat three times a day, do some shopping and some other touristy things and still spend under $2000. Not bad at all and definitely on the list to do again.

I wrote in a notebook when we were on our trip and will transcribe it into here when I get time. I will also post pictures when I get time. I've gotten several emails asking how it all went so in the interim I'll share what I emailed my sister-in-law as a short recap:

Ben met Cletus from the Dukes of Hazzard and got his picture taken with him. Emily and Eva took an hour long horseback ride up the mountain and back. All the kids and Todd raced around in go karts. I got to sit in a rocking chair on top a mountain and also climbed to the top of Ol' Smoky. We sang and danced and laughed and Emily peed her pants from laughing so hard. Todd was only grumpy about 40% of the time and we all came home with limbs intact. Ben made it back with 80 cents in his pocket but only because no one would let him spend 75 of that 80 on a toothbrush in a motel vending machine. It was great!

I uploaded the best of our vacation photos to Flickr and found my pro account has expired so I cannot create a set to organize them all. A pro account renewal isn't in my budget right now so you'll just have to go to http://flickr.com/photos/justlisa/535214753/ and scroll through to the end to see them all.

Todd always says he'd like to go to South Dakota and hunt prairie dogs (NO!!!!) or pheasants. I wonder how he'd feel about Namibia hunting safaris where he could bag a cape buffalo or rhino. This is a well designed site offering a lot of information for such a trip. My favorite tip from the FAQ is never loan your new skinning knife to a local skinner unless you want it sharpened on a rock.

They have several packages but I think the Namibia sarari with the shark hunting option would be fun. I was pleasantly surprised that they take the time to recommend a gun caliber and to stress the importance of practicing with the big gun before going on the safari. A lot of places fail to mention that and I know from living with the gun freak that even the best shooters need practice on every gun.

They say the best time to go is anytime February to November. I'd go in the winter if we could afford it and take the dolphin cruise while Todd chased baboons and cheetahs.

This summer we took the whole family and had a blast in Tennessee but it was a lot of driving and a whole lot of money for no more time than we spent actually out of the truck. Next year we will probably do something much closer to home.

Missouri has a lot of great spots to vacation with Branson being the destination of many midwesterners year-round. Maybe I could talk Todd into aBranson golf vacation. We could have the scenic cabin environment we all love but be close to all of the shows and entertainment... and the golf course. The Thousand Hills Golf Resort sounds like an awesome place to play 18 holes of golf but I guess I don't understand the point of the advertised "GPS on every cart". I definitely have to go there now just to find out how GPS relates to golf. I'll report back when I know more! heh.

When I was a kid, trains used to go through my town a few times a day. My house was less than two blocks away from the tracks and my best friend lived right next to them. We spent a lot of times on or near the tracks and used to ride our horses on them from her house to where her dad worked about a mile up the tracks. Sometimes a train would come and we'd have to run like crazy to get out of the way. Since it was right on the edge of town the train would either be just picking up speed or slowed way down to enter town. Either way, we were never in danger of being squished I guess but it was exhilarating at that age.

They took the tracks out years ago and it's now the walking trail I walk every morning with the dog. I still have a fascination for trains and get my fix every two weeks when I take Christopher to his dads. Every single time I go up there I see a train on my way out to his place. This morning there was no train so I stopped in McDonalds and sat in the big window where I had an unobstructed view of the tracks across the road. Waited for a train that never came. Todd doesn't share my excitement so he ran out of patience and we had to come home without seeing one. Damn it!! Stupid rain and now no train.

I did find this cool youtube video of a coal train though. It'll have to do for now.

We returned in the middle of the night from a whirlwind trip to Indiana and back to spend time with my favorite cousins. Left Friday around noon and drove pretty much straight through to get there. Took about 11 hours because it poured rain all the way across Illinois and most of Indiana. We hit Chicago at the tail end of Friday rush hour in a total downpour. One mile of I-80 took over 30 minutes to travel. I was so scared that by the time we did get safely to our desination, my guts were a total mess.

Saturday we hung out, met new people, raced some go karts, did some sightseeing and then the big reason we were there... Halloween party. My cousin goes all out for his favorite holiday with a haunted trail, big bonfire, lots of food, about 100 people or more. It was great fun.

Yesterday we left there about noon, hit a Cabela's in Chicago, a Kohl's in Rockport and drove and drove and drove. Iowa, Illinois and Indiana have got to be the most boring states to drive through. Corn and beans and corn and beans and look!! Corn!! It really is like that.

It's good to be home but wish we could have stayed a week or two there. Pictures later if they turned out.

As always I am out of time and have lots to say. Short version is Eva and I went to Texas for a week and just got back last night. The first night we drove from here to Wichita, Kansas and stayed in a craptastic Motel 6. Literally opened the door into the bed. Got up the next morning and headed towards Amarillo. Got too bored driving that way so turned back around and went to Wichita Falls where she will go to tech school.

Once there we checked into Howard Johnsons and proceeded to have an awesome time. (as awesome as one can have with broken ribs and bronchitis) The hotel was so nice. I could live there and never leave the premises. Pools, hot tub, sauna, fitness center, mini golf, restaurant, lounge, shuffleboard and more. Ironically, this was our cheapest hotel as they give one heckuva military discount.

My friend got us on base one day and gave us a general tour and the next day we took a tour of Eva's specific program and met some very nice people. It amazed me that the higher ranked people were so nice and accomodating.

The best part for me was seeing all the jets. It's a training base so there are always jets flying around - like drivers ed for pilots. I have such a love affair with jets that I kept running to windows to watch them go overhead.

We checked out of the hotel Friday and I drove as far as Newton, Kansas and ran out of steam about 2 in the morning. Got up Saturday morning and drove to Manhattan, Kansas to meet my friend who lives there now. He showed us around town and then out to his place to hang out for about an hour. Left there and headed it on home.

It was a much needed trip despite all the driving in incredible pain. I couldn't take any of my pain pills because I was the only authorized driver on the rental car. BTW, Nissan Altimas are pretty zippy little cars for road trippin'. Get good gas mileage too!

Time for bed but as the week goes on I will try to share more details and maybe some pics.

Yesterday morning it was 0. This morning it's 31. I feel like wearing shorts.

I have this list I made of things I want to do this year and I've been crossing things off with a vengeance. After about 15 years of pretty much staying home all the time, I'm getting out again and doing stuff. It's addictive.

This weekend I made arrangements for us to ride the train. In an hour's time online I managed to get Amtrak tickets, a cheap rental car, a cheap motel and a page full of things to do over on the Mighty Mississippi. That was Tuesday morning.

Tuesday night the rental car place called and asked if I was coming via Amtrak. He noticed our location was close enough that we could have drove ourselves so thought he better check. He wanted to let me know the eastbound train was always late. 3 or 4 hours was the norm. Sometimes up to 10. They would still have a car for us at the train station but there would be an extra charge for pickup after business hours. So instead of being into Burlington before noon on Saturday, we could be getting there after dark which totally defeats the purpose of even going.

Folks, this kind of stuff is why I stopped making plans or going anywhere. Just like breaking the rib a few days before the Texas trip. It's ALWAYS something. I will not be discouraged. It's more depressing to sit and home and hear of other's journeys. I will continue to take my own. Let's just hope the weather through the Rockies is good tomorrow and that train gets here on time!

Todd and I rode the Amtrak train over to the Mississippi today. The plan was to ride over, take pics of the bald eagles on the river, stay the night then hang out in Burlington Sunday and ride the train back. The weather said sunny and 36 for both days when I booked this trip. Today was great but tomorrow....

FREEZING RAIN WILL CHANGE OVER TO ALL SNOW BETWEEN 600 AM AND 900 AM SUNDAY MORNING. TOTAL SNOWFALL OF 4 TO 8 INCHES IS EXPECTED BY SUNDAY EVENING... WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. A NORTHWEST WIND WILL INCREASE SUNDAY MORNING AND CONTINUE THROUGH THE EVENING HOURS. EXPECT SUSTAINED SPEEDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH...WITH GUSTS AROUND 50 MPH AT TIMES. THIS WILL CREATE SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW...WITH WHITEOUT CONDITIONS AT TIMES...ESPECIALLY IN OPEN AREAS. IN ADDITION...THE COMBINATION OF ICE ACCRETION ON POWER LINES AND THE HIGH WINDS WILL LIKELY CAUSE POWER LINES TO BEGIN GALLOPING...POTENTIALLY EXACERBATING THE SITUATION WITH POWER OUTAGES.

I suppose the train will just go right on through all of this without issue but we still have to get home from the train station. bleh.

I have to say that I really liked the train. At first I thought it might make me sick. It rocks back and forth a whole lot and is really bumpy but after a bit, I adjusted. We walked through several cars to get to the snack bar. Crossing between cars is interesting. Seemed like we hit a rough spot in the track every time we were between cars.

I never get scared and it drives the kids crazy. They will try to sneak up on me or jump out at me and nothing shakes me up. That changed today. I had the GPS going on my phone so know our train was going 68mph. I heard the sound of a freight train coming the opposite direction and even when I am already on a train, the sound of a train excites me. So I did the usual "AAAAA!! Train!!!!!!" and leaned into the window so I could see it. Holy shit!! All of the sudden my window filled with the orange of the engines and it was so sudden and so close that I about had a heart attack. I jumped high enough to make up for every time the kids tried to scare me.

Faith came across Iowa via train last year. I want her to come back to Iowa via highway though. The snack bar attendant said in the big cities, the trains dont blow their horns as they go by and the affluent commuters live near the tracks in spectacular homes. In rural Iowa, the train blows the horn at every crossing and as it approaches and goes through every town. Because of that, the cheap, crappy houses are along the tracks. I told Todd I hated that Faith had to see that as her first impression of Iowa. It was pretty much disgusting at every town. Scrap yards and old trailers and pitiful little houses. The country side is pretty though. I want to take the train through the mountains some time.

Now we are tucked into the noisiest motel in the world. It's a beautiful room but right above the pool and I think every child under age 10 is booked on our hall. Hopefully they will quiet down soon.

Oh yeah, I won $30 in a nickel machine at the casino. I started with $20 and was down to like 40 cents when I hit a nickel machine called Love Struck. It paid me $51.40 and I quit. My mama didn't raise no dummy : )

And the bald eagles are sooo plentiful over here. Literally hundreds in the trees with dozens feeding on the river amongst the pelicans and other birds. Got some really great pics I'll post later. What a gorgeous bird.

I swear to God someone had a contest for the top 100 noisy children in the midwest and as a prize they got a weekend at the Fairfield Marriott in Burlington, Iowa.

Todd went down to check the pool for me as it was too congested with the noise to use it last night. He said this morning there is a beaver fight in the pool or that's what it sounded like to him. Very large hairy back man occupies the hot tub. Really hairy. Like his hair floats around him in the water.

The noise level in this place is just incredible. When the heat kicks on it sounds like a semi truck hitting rumble strips. People in the hallway talking somehow gets amplified to sound like a rock concert outside the door. I hope I can sleep on the train on the way home this evening.

They've added a blizzard warning until midnight tonight so getting home from the depot could be interesting. I keep asking Todd if we can please stay another night here (not in this hotel) but he ignores me. I hate driving in blizzards. I have no fear of dying as I am ready at anytime to meet my maker. I do have a HUGE fear of going off the road and being stuck in snow for hours.

Riding the train back was also awesome except there were way more passengers so we couldn't just sit where we wanted and it was noisier.

I proved my theory that the universe does not want me to sleep. The train had to go slower because we were following a freight and the freight was busting through the snow. Nice, gentle swaying of the cars in the dark. Very relaxing. Laid my head on Todd's shoulder and started to doze off. Guy in front of me begins to snore loud. Sit up, he stops, Lean on Todd, he starts. After the third time I said "Oh for fuxsake!" and Todd laughed. He already knows this no sleep theory to be true and laughs whenever I kid myself into thinking I can take a nap.

Train did a stop or two and got all quiet and relaxing again so laid my head back down, just started to snooze and a lady on the other side sneezed 36 times in a row. Then some kids started talking very loudly to their mother a couple of seats behind them. It was like that all the way home.

Of course I have more to say but I gotta go dig the car out so I can get kids to school this morning. Eagle pics are up at my flickr page.

Quick catch up post. A week after I got the new car, I went to Texas to visit Eva. I was instructed that she could not hug while in her uniform on base but the minute we saw each other, that rule went out the window. Lots of happy tears. It was so great to see her. She has an awesome man in her life who loves her the way she deserves. I love being on an Air Force base. Not a more bunch of people to be found that I know of. I left Texas feeling like the world might not be such a bad place after all.

Barack Obama continues his march to the top without stooping low and that also gives me hope. I think big changes are coming and they will be good. Change is very scary but taking a leap of faith and having it work out is worth it.

Mother's Day weekend I took my mom on her first Amtrak trip. It was a very short one as I wasn't sure she'd like it. She loved it so more train travel is in the future. Next month she is having knee surgery and we all hope it will restore her ability to get around like she used to. The train ride was nice but the getting off the train and walking up the platform to the depot was about too much for her and she's spent several days trying to get her feet under her again.

When the train stopped, the step down was enormous and the asphalt rounded off towards the tracks. No train employees came to help us disembark so I jumped down and had another person hand me the stool they use. That alleviated some of the giant step down but there was still a large gap across. Mom is afraid to trust her legs to hold her so she was getting the courage to take the step when this huge man came down behind her and wanted off to smoke. He had a bad knee too and was being so pushy. She told him if he'd just bear with her, she'd get her courage and make the step. The asshole started yelling at me to push the stool closer to the train. I kept telling him that I could not because of the way the asphalt sloped to the track. If I pushed it closer, it would slide down under the train. Another gentleman who had gotten off another car to smoke came down and helped me get mom off so I started to walk off with her and huge obnoxious guy said "HEY!! I need help getting off here too!!!" I almost whirled around and said "Fall off, you ....." but I bit my tongue and went back to help him. He grabbed my shoulder and my upper arm and used me like a rail to swing himself down and out. Didn't even say thank you! The next day my shoulder and elbow hurt and I wished I'd gone ahead and said "Fall off, you...."

Christopher had his first encounter with a rude person at work the other night. They had lots of ice cream orders to do and she gave hers. He told her it would be a few minutes and she said "Oh no, I think you will do mine now." He told her he couldn't and if she'd have a seat, he'd bring it to her. She repeated that he would do hers that instant. This would be where I lost my cool. Fortunately the kid has his dad's sense of grin big and bear it. They literally have the exact same gritted teeth grin when they are holding it together. Anyway, she kept arguing and he told her it had to go in the order received to be fair to all customers. She said to just tear up her order then. Some people... Really, what kind of person goes into a business and demands service ahead of others?? Someone who does NOT want to meet me, I can tell ya that.

Summer is here! Actually wore shorts yesterday and have mowed the yard four times now. Y'all know I love snow but after last winter, the sunshine and heat are most welcome.

The kid and I are road trippin' this weekend. Destination unknown. We have a tendency to drive each other completely nuts in a small space. My car is very small. Say a prayer.

See ya!!