The hills are alive!!!!

With the sound of music!

Oh how I enjoyed my evening. I should have been working. I wasn't. I was watching 'The Sound of Music'. It did not disappoint me. It never does.

I sang along.
I cried when I saw Maria in her wedding gown.
I was nervous when they were hiding.
I was afraid that Rolfe would shoot the captain this time.
I was so happy when they got away and lived happily ever after.
You know they did.

It's how I want all my movies to be. Timeless. Heart touching. Happy ending. It's how I want my life to be.

Shop til you drop-Another post by Mason

Grandma went to a craft fair yesterday and bought me this neat thing to cover the shopping carts to keep me germ free. She says shopping carts are icky from other kids that have done nasty things in them. I was looking all over and ready to shop!


Grammy & Mommy took too long in the store and I fell asleep! My moose was still awake though. He watches out for me when I'm sleeping. You can just see him peeking out the leg hole.


It is a really sunny day. Grandma says we have lots of work to do today so I thought I'd rest while I could.

Grandma says I'm really cute and she's really glad she had her camera with her!

Mason's morning

My name is Mason. I live in a big house with my Mommy & Daddy and my Grammy & Grandpa. I have two dogs that I love to watch and 2 cats. I like bugs.

I woke up this morning really early. My tummy was empty. I tried to sleep longer as I knew it was too early to get up, but I just couldn't. I have a monitor in my room so Mommy & Daddy can hear me when I wake up. I tried talking into it but they don't understand my words yet. I think Grandma does though. When I talk to her she asks me questions about what I'm saying and everything. Anyway, I had to resort to crying as I want what I want when I want it. After a few whimpers I heard someone come into the room. I just knew it was my Mommy as I've the best mommy in the world. She loves me more than anything and she takes such good care of me. The very second I cry she's right there to pick me up. She laughs with me and reads to me and she's just the very best. I felt myself being lifted and then held close and snuggled. I looked up and it was my Grammy! Grandma has never gotten me up early in the morning before. What a treat this was! She wasn't talking to me because she didn't want Mommy & Daddy to hear on the monitor, but she was kissing me all over my face. It makes me smile when she does that. I slipped her some tongue. That always makes Grandma laugh!

Grandma and I headed downstairs and joy of joy, we were in the kitchen! I know that means someone is making me a bottle. Grandma is old and she talks to herself a lot. I still love her though. She was saying 'hmmmm which bottle should I use?' I pointed but she didn't seem to see which one I was pointing at. She finally found one. Then she started wandering around the kitchen. I thought maybe she forgot what she was doing as, well, she's old and she does that. Seems she just didn't know where Mommy put my formula. Thank goodness she found it and quickly made my bottle as I felt as if I might starve to death! She started to do the shake dance and I knew sustenance was coming soon.

Grandma had me under one arm, carrying me rather like a sack of potatoes I might add, and my bottle in the other hand. Just as I thought she might drop me, we made it to her rocking chair. I love when Grammy rocks me. Finally she gave me what I wanted. My bottle! Oh man it was good. I was so very hungry. I swilled the whole entire thing down in no time flat. Grandma sat me up to burp. Burping is good. It was dark in the living room and the only light came from Grammys laptop. My eyes were of course drawn to the light and that man was smiling at me again. Grandma has a picture of a man on what she calls her desktop and he smiles at me all the time. She says it's my great grandpa and he would have loved me so very much. Well that's a given. Everyone loves me. Anyway, this guy does look very special and he makes me smile. Grandma seems to really like it when I talk to this guy and smile at him, so I try to do it a lot for her. The little things make Grandma happy!

I started to get sleepy again and Grandma seemed to know just what I wanted. She snuggled me close and was talking to me in a soft voice. I love these special times with my Grammy. I'm going to miss her when she goes to Florida. She started to sing to me and that made me laugh as Grandma really, really, can't sing. Whew she thought my laugh was just because I was happy. I don't want to hurt her feelings as she really does try hard.

We were rocking and my eyes were rolling back in my head but I didn't want this time to end. I kept reaching up to touch Grammy's face. She loves when I do that and I love it too. I started to feel a little bit cold and Grandma knew that right away. She snuggled me closer into her soft, velvet robe. I smiled again. Grandma kissed me again and again. We rocked and snuggled and she kept telling me how much she loved me and how special I was. I felt Grammy get up out of the chair and she gave me more kisses and talked softly to me and then

I'm having a love affair

With food.

I've not been able to eat solid food for over a year. It's been more like two years actually. Now I can.

I want to continue my Weight Watcher journey, just not now. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not next week either. Right now, I want to eat the things I haven't eaten for eons. Who knows when the ability will go away again?

Tonight I had a pork loin chop. God it was good. I haven't had over 1 bite of meat in forever. I ate the whole damn thing. I had mashed taters and corn and apple sauce with it. When dinner was over I made rice krispie treats. I ate a lot of them before they even hit the pan!

I can't get enough hot dogs. Again, something I've not been able to eat. I have them every morning for breakfast.

If it's soft, I don't want to eat it. Bring on the solid stuff! Ohhhh bring on the rice krispie treats!

I'll pay the piper.

Memories fade

Maybe they don't fade, I just don't seem to remember things the way they really were. Maybe it's true, you just can't go home again. I guess, it's possible, my tastes have changed.

Let's start with movies. I remember watching 'West Side Story' and being glued to the screen. I got excited with Maria when she was getting ready for her date. My heart was broken when Bernardo & Tony died. Oh the characters...Diesel, Baby John, Anita. Man Anita was a spitfire! I loved to hear her say 'Bernardo'. Those r's just rolled off her tongue! I just had to buy the movie so I'd have it for all eternity. I watched it again a few weeks ago. God what was I thinking when I first saw it? OK, I guess I was probably about 13 years old and was caught up in the romance. But it's so hokey now. I mean really...dancing gang members? Officer Krupke wouldn't listen to punks say 'cracko jacko' or 'daddy O' today. I think maybe that's a shame. I wish I'd not watched the movie again as the memory is now ruined. I know that's a shame.

At one time I thought I would become an English teacher. Literature if you please. I loved poetry, and Shakespeare rocked my world. The Bard and I still have an ongoing affair, but some of the poets I thought were wonderful when I was a teenager, well they just plain suck. I know I liked Poe. Hello? Poe? I just read 'The Raven' again tonight. Oh my God it might as well have been titled 'I'm Whacked out on Drugs'. When will I read Poe again? "Quoth the raven, nevermore."

When I was growing up I read all the Trixie Belden books and all the Hardy Boys books also. I hung on every word that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote. The Bobbsey Twins were close personal friends of mine. I loved Clifford the big red dog and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. She was magic you know! I have such fond memories of all those books and characters. I think I shan't read them again. I'll just remember them fondly.

The road to Florida

Is paved with good intentions.

I got up this morning and thought 'ohhhh I'll get a lot of things done today'. After drinking my obligatory 4 cups of coffee and eating a slice of the mouth watering zucchini bread I baked, I only had time to do one thing before work.

We leave for Florida on September 19th. That might sound like a lot of time to you. It isn't. We're also having a very big party here on September 6. There are doctor visits and dentist visits and vet visits for Pixie. There are rooms to clean and gardens to weed, and thanks to my overzealous planning this summer, there are bricks to lay. Good Lord what was I thinking? The house needs to be power washed. It's a damn big house in case you don't know. Of course, the windows will all need to be washed after that. We have a lot of windows. The 5th wheel needs to be winterized and holy shit I am tired thinking about all I need to do!

Did I mention that we both work?? Our last day is September 14. Next week is the big holiday week and we will both probably be working a lot. Again, Good Lord what was I thinking????

My goal for today was to figure out exactly how many plastic crates we can put in the truck bed. You see, everything has to be packed in plastic crates as the truck bed, even under the tonneau cover, isn't water proof. Sounded simple enough to tackle before a long day at work. So, after coffee and before work, I leapt up into the back of the truck with crates and a tape measure. Damn and blast, the Reese hitch is in there. I can't figure out how many crates will fit in there with that monstrosity in place. Den is at work so I think I'll just move it myself. Did I mention it weighs about 150 pounds? That f'er is heavy! I tore a chunk out of my knuckle and turned the rest of the finger black and blue. I got the cotter pins out and could not for the life of me heft that puppy out of the truck. Thankfully my son was home and he helped me get it to the front porch. I went back to the truck to measure for crates now. I took a running leap at the truck and missed by about 3 inches. Olympic athlete I am not! Crashed my shin into the bumper and fell backwards onto the driveway. Now my shin is black and blue and bleeding I might add, also my ass hurts as I fell onto the cement. I lay there and looked around and hoped nobody saw my fall. Luck was with me and I seemed to be alone. I got up, recalculated, and actually made it into the truck bed this time. I put one crate down and turned around to reach for my tape measure. When I turned back I forgot I'd put the crate there and tripped over it and went crashing to the floor of the truck bed skinning my other knee. I sat there for a minute. I collected up my crates and my tape measure. I climbed carefully out of the truck bed. Shut it up, rolled back the tonneau cover and locked it.

Fuck it all. We'll buy what we need when we get to Florida.

God please help me with whatever task I try to tackle tomorrow. Amen.

In the still of the night

I wake up in the middle of the night. The bed is comfy. I'm not too hot or too cold. I just can't go back to sleep. I lay there awake as things run through my mind. Sometimes I'll just lay there, but sometimes the things that run through my mind just won't stop until I get up and do something. Tonight was one of those nights.

I got up and unloaded some of the dish drainer and sorted through the piles of papers on the table. I paid a few bills. My heart wasn't into it so I decided just to come online and play until I get tired and can go back to bed.

My Dad, as he got older, used to tell me that he didn't sleep well at night as he just couldn't calm his mind down. I understand now what he meant. I'm not laying there worrying about things, I'm just thinking. My mind flits from one thing to another with no order at all. For example, laying there tonight, this is part of the path my brain was going down.

We leave for Florida exactly one month from today. Wow, I've not unpacked one bag still from when we got home in May. Hmmmm OK so today I vow to unpack that bag so I can start packing again. Maybe I should get up and start that now.

I took pictures of hummingbirds today, I wonder if they turned out? Maybe I should get up and download the pictures and see.

We're having a huge party in September. I'm so excited about it I can barely stand myself. Joshua (my youngest son) is flying in from Miami for the shindig and I just found out my brother Dan from Reno is flying home for it. My best girlfriend in all the world is coming along with about 50 other people so far. It's to be a Jimmy buffet. We'll play Jimmy Buffett music and have cheeseburgers in paradise and drink margarita's and revel in each others company. Hmmmm OK so today I vow to tweak up the menu and make a list of every single thing I'll need to get to prepare for the party. Maybe I should get up and start that right now. I wonder if anyone sells paper parrots?

Did I sanitize the table at work before I left?

I've got a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. I've got a list of everything I want to talk to him about. I hope I don't forget anything. Maybe I should get up and look at the list.

I'd like to bake zucchini bread today and take a loaf into work. Maybe I should get up and do that now. Sometimes a zucchini looks like a penis.

Does Den need an allergy shot? I give him his shots...seems a long time since I've stabbed him. Maybe I should get up and check the date of the last shot. I wonder if I'll need to order more serum before we leave for FL. Maybe I should get up and check the vial.

I like toast. I just can't get the graffiti from Daphne's blog out of my mind. I have chuckled about this for days. Bed is jiggling as I'm giggling again. I mean really. You've got a pen, you've got a sign and you can say anything on it so the world knows what you're thinking. What's on your mind, what's important to you. You step up to the sign and you write 'I like toast'. It's priceless. Maybe I should get up right now and go read Daph's blog again. Shit, I love toast, maybe I should get up and have a slice.

My friend is upset as his neighbor has passed away. Maybe I should get up out of bed right now and send him an email. Let him know that I've been thinking of him since he got the news.

Did Pixie fart? I smell a fart.

Den and I have Sunday off together and I asked Jason, my second son, if they were busy as we could pop in for a visit. OK, so they live 3 hours away and it's a major outing and not a pop in. Maybe I should get up right now and email Jason and remind him that he's supposed to be asking his wife if they're busy on Sunday so I can plan what we're doing that day now.

We've got 3 bee nests that I need to kill. It needs to be done at night when they're sleeping and I keep forgetting. Maybe I should get up right now and do that.

Caffeine keeps me awake. Maybe I shouldn't have drank 2 diet pepsi's after work and had a chocolate malt.

I'm going to be 50 in October. Sounds old. I don't feel old. Groovy. No angst about hitting the half century mark. I don't mind getting older at all. I love my birthday. Maybe I'll go skydiving on my 50th birthday and then get a new tattoo. Maybe I should get up and start looking at pictures of pixie's as that's what I'd like the new tattoo to be of.

My freezer is full. I wonder if we'll be able to use all the food up before we leave for FL. Maybe I should get up and take inventory.

The new jeans I bought are still in the truck. Maybe I should run out and get them right now while I'm thinking of it.

OK, Pixie definitely farted.

I wonder how Joann's family is doing. She fell off her husband's shoulders several years ago and hit her head on the garage floor and died. She was healthy, she exercised, she ate right, she took care of herself. She was having fun, laughing with her husband, she fell and then she was dead. Life is short. I'm so glad I've lived it to it's fullest. I say a prayer for her family now.

Shoot I forgot to invite the neighbors to the party. Maybe I should get up and set an invitation out to remind me to do that tomorrow.

And the list goes on. Sometimes I just drift back off to sleep after all this...sometimes I just really do have to get up and do something.

I vow, no more caffeine after 3PM for me anymore. I'll get up right now and write that down so I don't forget.