Time Warner is O-U-T out!!!!!

I have had it, I'm done. Time Warner Cable sucks big rotten eggs---I would say something else, but this is sort of usually a family program. They are going to get to come get their cable box and remote. If I have to drive to Ashland --my local office--almost an hour's drive away from my home, I'm going to be pissed. And they are going to know it. (Come to think of it, the best place to get the camo's my husband wears to work--and which need replaced badly---is in Ashland also--could combine the trip, but I can still be pissed).

What prompted this is that I have now gone for 2 days with no cable. Yes my bill is paid up to date. No I was not disconnected. I am just getting a screen of nothing but snow and I may not be able to get someone out here til Monday to check it out, since I am apparently the only one left in my neighborhood with cable, and they don't send someone out to check the box at the poles until at least 3 people call to complain. This is what I am told AFTER I have gotten pissed and pissed off the tech and demanded to speak to her supervisor. He at least was polite when he came on the phone, after only a couple of minutes of being on hold, which beats their usual record by at least 10 minutes. So I apologized for the words I used to his clerk, explained my problem and supposedly the local office will call me first thing in the morning to get someone out here in the morning. After I explained that I work for a living and won't be here after noon.

That's ok. When/IF they call, I'm going to tell them that since I won;t be home to use the tv for a few days anyway, they can just come out Monday and pick up their equipment, because I am going DISH. I told you I have had it. At least with DISH I can be mad with 200 channels. The kids will get a shocker, because I WILL block several channels, including MTV, Comedy Central, FUSE, BET, and so on. And they will never figure out my code. But there are plenty of other channels for them to choose from. I may just block Nick and Disney as well. I'm kind of tired of them, and there are plenty of Discovery type channels they can watch.

We leave Friday to start our trip to get the boys in CT. I made the executive decision to leave then and drive about halfway, stop, then drive the rest of the was, pick them up and at least get back into PA before we stop for the night. Of course this probably ticked off the ex, but right now, I'm not too concerned. He picked them up at 8-9 am 5 weeks ago, technically I could pick them up at the same time and be well within my rights. But I will be nice to all of us, but especially my mom, who for yet another year is watching Shellie so we can make this trip and not feel like we have to find the child a new home before we even get out of the state. The way I have it planned, we should be back midafternoon or so on Sunday, maybe a little later, but well before anything resembling dark.

I can;t wait to have them back!!!I have missed them something awful lately.

Ok another point to be made. The news ticker at the top of my screen touts a research study or something that gives 237 reasons to have sex. I can come up with several reasons without any help whatsoever from the general public, but I bet I could come up with even more not to have sex.

1. it causes kids.
2. it causes kids.
3. it causes kids.

Need I go on?

Not that I would trade my kids for anything in the world (Ok maybe a winning lottery ticket for the biggest Powerball jackpot ever--just to show local embarassment Jack Whitakker how to handle money), but the fact remains, sex causes kids. Maybe not the first time or the first 300 times, but eventually, for a great many people who probably shouldn't have kids (yes there are days I include me in this), it causes kids.

Just a thought, they know what causes that these days......

Am I old or what?

Ok, yes I am 40 and 1 week old. Yes I have been on short term disability twice in the last 2 1/2 years for my decrepit L5S1 disc and SI joint. Does that mean that a little exertion (i.e. pushing/pulling carts of merchandise from warehouse to salesfloor for two straight days to set an ad) should throw me all back out of whack? Apparently so, because I am in pain. No painkillers in this house either--I used the last of the generic Lortabs about 6 months ago, and I refuse to ask my doc to refill, because I hate the things. They make me loopy(ier) and so sleepy I can't remember my name. I can't function when I take them. So I subsist on extra strength tylenol and advil. Neither of which does the trick.
Neither does the body pillow my family got me as part of my birthday gift, thinking it would help ease my back to curl around it. Nope. Now picture me, Ron and big-ass body pillow sharing a queen size bed when I am queen size all by myself. Yeah, he's probably right--he probably gets about 6 inches of space on which to sleep. But don't tell him I said he's right.

Now on to my bitch of the day. If you are supposedly a teacher, shouldn't you be able to read? We are doing a teacher appreciation thing next Saturday where the teachers get 10% (big whoop) off their total purchase. So as I am coming back in from helping a guy load a recliner into his truck, the CSS stops me and says "do teachers get 10 % off today" I told her no that is Saturday, not today, and the lady looks like she wants to argue with me about it. So I pull open the ad paper and show the CSS where it says very plainly it is Saturday August 4th. Doh!!!!

Ok I have another bitch. I went to my cousin's funeral today. 48, heart attack. From the funeral home in the west end to the graveyard in the east end, traveling on 2 lane city streets, only about half of the oncoming traffic pulled over and stopped for our procession. Do they not teach this in driver's ed anymore? Do parents not teach their kids that not only is it the law, but a sign of respect for the deceased? Jimbo was not a big name mover and shaker in the community, but he did deserve the respect of those around him. All we ask is that for 30 seconds, think aobut someone other than yourselves and ask yourself, wouldn't you want others to do the same for you?

I have to give thanks to the guy on Madison Ave by the DMV who stopped working in his yard and waited patiently until we had passed by before he began work again.

Ronnie just asked me what's going on with me. I've been in kind of a funk today. I guess part of it is just being exhausted---haven't had a day off since Monday, and probably won't get another one till I start vacation Saturday. Then Jimbo dying, and suddenly I feel guilty for not being as close to that side of the family as I am to Mom's, and not really knowing him so well. So I go to the viewing last night and the funeral today, and I think maybe a part of me is thinking too hard about it. But then I think, my God he was only 48. I'm 40. My brother said the same thing hit him--he'll be 35 this fall. Now I'm starting to think we need to get all our papers in order---DNR's, living wills, etc. And I need to call the guy to get our grave markers in place and get them out of my car.

And I need to organize our financial papers/bills, etc. I've got the file cabinet, hanging file folders and manila folders--I just need the time, and now that I have been so motivated to do it, I have had to work and be doing other stuff. I haven;t even touched my sewing machine in a week.

Although I did finally heat-set the iron on's on the kids' shirts from VBS a couple of summers ago. The ones where I had to heat set their footprints on them to keep them from washing out, and I never got them done---now they are finally done. Ben and Chris can still wear theirs--Shellie might get this fall's worth of wear out of hers, but if we keep it nice, I can make her a pillow or make it a part of an eventual tshirt quilt for her. The shirts say "walk humbly with your God." The bible school theme that year was big on doing the walk: like the Steven Curtis Chapman song "you can run with the big dogs, you can fly like the eagles.......but it all comes down to the walk."

And I don;t do all that well with mine. I have to set the goal and keep to it of getting these kids back to church. Chris decided about 3 months ago that he wanted to become a preacher, in the tradition of our Pastor Larry. So I guess we really need to get back to it. He also wants to be baptized again. He was baptized as a toddler in the Presbyterian church we attended at the time, but he now wants to do it because he now knows what it means and what it stands for. I think my altogether indifferent view of infant baptism has changed radically in the last couple of years
because it really is a choice you have to make with the facts in hand, and no infant or really young child has the capability of understanding it. So I am all for Chris being baptized again---this time in the dunking tank, not just with a few drops of water on his head.

Anyway, if I am to get up and get going in the morning, again, on what was supposed to be my day off, I need to get a shower and get to bed.

Countdown 6 days to getting my boys back!!!

Rain, rain......

Please rain some more so my pretty flowers will keep blooming.

I really don't need the thunder and lightening so much, but the rain is nice.

If the pics uploaded for this post, the purple/yellow and the hostas are on the side of my garage--actually all around my garage. The salvia and the tickseed are at the back of the living room. In these shots, all the beds actually needed weeding, which has since been done.

I never liked gardening and yard work when I was growing up--it was a chore. Now I really like how it adds to the overall look and personality of the place.

Well, another evening of thunderstorms, rain(desperately needed), and intermittent sunshine. I took video on my digital camera last night of the lightening show around 8:30 or so. Very cool.

Well off to la la land. Or the land of demanding kids....whichever.

Nope didn;t think the pics would post--this is dial up you know.

Counting down.....

The days until we leave to pick up the boys from their dad's. We leave on 8/4 and pick them up in the early AM of 8/5. Yeah!!!!!!!Picking them up and having them back home is better than getting a "you rock" on Guitar Hero.
Sorry Ronnie was playing when I came home from work.
On an up note, my sister in law called me today and she had picked up the pictures of the girls we had made at Target a couple of weeks ago. So I also have that to look forward to.
Which beat looking forward to cleaning out my file cabinets and etc. over the next however long it takes. I have many other areas of my home and life that can use some organization, but I think the whole journey will begin with the file cabinet. I should be able to do away with a ton of papers and junk mail and so on and so forth. Between the file folders and the shredder--cross cut, naturally--I should hopefully get thru the pile in the computer room. Anything will help.
Well, hubby just locked up and turned all the light off, probably a good clue that its time for bed.
Night all.

Just another day in paradise....

Have I already titled a post like that? Hell if I know. I'm counting down til vacation. Counting down til my day off on Thursday works too.

I got to talk to the boys today. They sounded ok---they had been hiking around the Grand Canyon someplace, and are going to 4 corners tomorrow. Ben finished the HP book, of course Chris and their dad had already finished it. So we talked about the book and their trip and stuff.

Ron's uncle and aunt from Cleveland area came down to WV last night and out to our house tonight. EEK---not them--they're cool, but my house is in the middle of a major reorganization(like when isn;t it....)so not exactly the shape I would have liked it to be in, but oh well... Shellie kept them well entertained by literally performing selections from the Hannah Montana show.

By the way, it has been so long since I played this game---someone remind me what kind of car is a pididdle and which is a pidaddle. I know one is a "one eye", but I forget which as well as what the other is. I know I am hopeless.

The superintendent of schools here in the co. and I have been emailing back and forth the last couple of days on the school supply issue. I am losing the battle on getting reimbursed for the supplemental paperbacks I had to buy for Chris summer reading program for honors, but I can deal with that---he knows I do not agree with it, but states that a resolution for parents in my situation is trying to be reached--maybe a book buyback or something. We'll see. I probably won;t sell the books back, because Ben is headed down the same academic path his brother has blazed, so at some point I figure he will need the same books. But I only have to buy supplemental supplies for them to use here at home, not for school. So that does help some. We'll see how it goes as the school year gets into full swing in the next few weeks. I guess I am just not as angry as I was when it all first came up.

Well, I guess that is it for tonight, unless I find something while surfing that catches my attention.

Who?????

Ok I decided to check out a couple of blogs before I signed off, and on Don't Print This, there is a quiz to see which Harry Potter kid you would be. I am apparently Ginny Weasley.

Hey she gets the hero of the book and is greatly loved by her family and friends. Plus she has a temper like mine.

I can live with that.

The never ending saga.....

Pictures and pictures and more pictures.....you get the point....

I have edited pics until I am blue in the face. The problem is, I do not have a photo editing program that I am completely happy with. I have the one that came with my HP camera, Adobe, and one I managed to salvage from my old HP camera. To get the results I want, I have to combine all 3. Not efficient. Neither am I which is why I need all the help I can get. So I have been on and off the computer today, working on them just long enough to get irritated, then coming back to it later when my head has cleared. No comments from the peanut gallery needed, thanks anyway for playing.

Tonight we played the game of "What do you want for dinner?" Bob Evans here we come.

Shellie tried to get me to take her to lunch today. She got told her choice was to get a Kid's Cuisine from the local FasChek as we drove by, or to eat frozen pizza from the freezer at home. After being told she was not allowed to eat the kid's meal in the family room--ketchup you know-- she opted for the pizza. Then she spilled grape koolaid on the couch right after I had told her to be careful how she was squeezing the bottle. Oops. Her dad has now banished her to the kitchen for everything she eats or drinks, no exceptions. Fortunately the couch is microfiber, so it cleaned really easy, but that's not the point.

As I have finished Harry Potter the 7th, I am now re reading my VC Andrews collection. Right now I am reading "Heaven". There are 6 or so books in that series, and this is the first.

Not too much else going on right now. I think I'll go read for a while.

Endings.......

Ok, I am a geek, a nerd, a bookworm....Whatever.

I finished the 7th and final HP book about half an hour ago. My oldest son finished it earlier today--but he also had a cross country plane ride to do it on. No details will I leak, but I was surprised by quite a bit, had some thoughts confirmed, and enjoyed working my way to the end.

I honestly hope they continue to make the last 2 movies, even if they go straight to DVD. I think this last book would make a hell of a flick.

I wish more people would write books like this, that engage your imagination and emotions. That even make you want to root for the "bad" people, because you can see their humanity. Books that enthrall young and middle-aged and old alike. Because the underlying theme is so universal.
Now it is off to craft land--I need to crop and otherwise mutilate the 300 plus pictures I downloaded from my camera today---fun fun fun. It is what I get for not having a working computer for 3 months. Then at some point in the next few days, I want to visit some quilting
websites to get some tips on how to feed a queen size quilt through the standard sewing machine so I don;t have to do the quilting part by hand. AYE YI YI.

Wish me luck.

522 pages done, only 200+ to go.....

Obviously I am talking about the last Harry Potter book. I got two chapters read yesterday afternoon, several more late last night, and am now on page 522. No I'm not going to give away any of the plot--you will just have to read it for yourself. Suffice it to say that there are a few things I have read that gave me a surprise, but then these books generally do.

I'm going to have to get up with Ron in the morning and get into the garden and get the rest of the beans and peppers picked, as well as some tomatoes and some zucchini. It's going wild out there!

Mom and Dad just stopped by and checked out our new dining room table. Oak dark burnished finish with 8 very sturdy chairs---they had better be--it took me almost 4 months for the order to come in--after I was told 2-4 weeks or so, so imagine how long it would take to get replacements.

Halllelujah!! I don't mean to sound whatever, but we have had my stepdaughters since Wednesday night and I'm ready to take my house back. I love them dearly, but I don;t feel like my home is my own when they are here for more than a night or two. And Kris and I were probably coming to the end of our good period together---starting to irritate each other some.
Kate was pretty good--actuallly had her nose stuck in the first HP book all week.

Well, gotta go into work in a little bit, so better get done what I got on here to do in the first place.PICTURES!!!!!!!!!

Thoughts on turning 40....

Actually I have none. It's a birthday and I am not listed on the obituary page. Must be a good day.

I don't get why people freak over turning older. It beats the alternative by a mile and a half at least. But the only thing that even remotely bothered me was the fact that for the last 7 years I have had that day off and this year I didn;t. We normally take a nearly kid free vacation---all we usually have to have is Shellie, since she is ours and there is no visitation for her. The boys are at their dad's and the girls staying with their mom instead of being here on the odd day or so is no problem. But this year we didn;t schedule for us--we scheduled around when the boys would be here, so I worked on my birthday.

And got my driver's license renewed.

And paid the taxes on the cars to renew their registration.

And changed my address on my voter's registration.

And went to work.

But today I got my computer back, so all is right with the world again.

Damn this margarita is good.

Thank you Ronnie!!!!!!

I'm BAAAACCCKKKKK...........

I know--just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water---da dum da dum da dum---or however the Jaws theme goes. Thanks a whole bunch, more than I can say, to my brother the computer guru. He found a power supply for $30 for my faithful 5 yr old HP Pavilion---even after the HP guy laughed me off the phone----and he fixed it and updated it in no time. After 3 months of being offline----Halllelujah!!!

So yeah I have a lot stored up that i would love to talk about--from the table games the state is forcing through, to the stupid teachers and the stupider school board who don't know what in the f$%#%#$ hell they are talking about to dumbass drivers and so on and so forth---and I assure you that we will get into all of it (for those of you who don;t like to hear anything contrary to your own views--THIS IS YOUR WARNING!!!!!) right now I am dying to get into the 7th and final Harry Potter book, so I may not rant for too long today.

Not to mention the fresh from the garden zucchini, beans, fried green tomatoes, etc that we will be cooking for my delayed birthday dinner in just a bit. MMMMMMMMMM..........

Now it is off to email land, so I can email my boys and let them know I am back online--as they are in CT with their dad for summer visitation.......

At least my priorities are not completely screwed up......