One Third

There are things on my mind that I prefer to not write about, so I'm not going to.

$100

Ed and I went to the Sands today for brunch. We both had sort of a weird assortment of food. He had shrimp, cheese, salmon, hashbrowns and I don't know what else. I had pot roast, a baked stuffed half potato, a roll, and sausage. We both started with the New England clam chowder, which was quite good. And, we both had fruit and two kinds of cake for dessert.

After brunch, we played the machines a while. I won 400 quarters for hitting 4 deuces on a deuces wild machine. Not bad! Net-net when we left, my winnings were more like $40 rather than $100, but I'll take it.

I'm making a new casserole dish out of the huge yellow squash that Ed brought home. We are also having grilled chicken tonight. The weather is really nice today, and it will be pleasant to sit out on the patio.

Mani Pedi

Well, I finally got to the nail salon. It was almost disasterous, though. The girl assigned to me royally screwed up my pedicure. First of all, she cut my nails way too short, and in an effort to free a toe nail that was starting to in grow, she left it all uneven and dug it out so much that I was bleeding.

Things went from bad to worse when she started on the polish. I selected a very deep burgundy shade, and I could see she was painting my nails, then painting around the edges with acetone to clean up her mistakes. Because the color was so dark, her acetone brush was literally painting all over my TOES with a lovely shade of pink. I finally had to stop her, and I got the other girl to redo my nails. She apologized profusely....and said "she cut too short!". No kidding!

I'm half watching NBC news, and there are lots of people waiting at the capitol building to see dead Ted Kennedy. I don't get all the media frenzy, but I suppose he deserves it more than Michael Jackson.

Kodachrome

My mom mentioned this evening on our phone conversation that she couldn't find this book of my dad's and she wondered if he had given it to me. It turned out to be a book called "America in Kodachrome", and my dad had responded to an ad and sent in a bunch of family photos way back when, and one that he submitted was used in the book.

I did a little internet search and found the pictures. The picture in the book from our family photos is a picture of my youngest sister at my grandmother's house in Ohio. I think she had just turned five, and she is holding her brand new Barbie doll. It's slide 10 of 32 here:

http://www.rosegallery.net/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=0&a=34&at=2

I love Kodachrome photos. The color was so brilliant and unreal.

I Could Have Predicted It

My sister reported to my mother that my nephew (with Down Syndrome) didn't like the bench. It was probably more like my sister didn't like it...was jealous I bought it for my mom, etc. etc. Whatever, whatever! I am so glad I've pretty much severed ties with both of my sisters, because I can't stand either one of them.

My mother's theory is since she was an only child she didn't know how to raise siblings properly. She thinks we should have been left to our own devices to settle squabbles when we were little, rather than her always trying to stop the fights. I really disagree. I have nothing in common with either one of them and never did. One of them is just plain crazy, and the other one is just evil. In any case, I have no use for either one.

Amber and Finger Food

Amber seems to bark much more at dinner time if the food is something we pick up with our fingers. Corn, ribs, chicken wings, pizza...they all seem to have the same excessive reaction.

Tonight was ribs, mac salad, and corn on the cob. The guest blogger cooked it all himself, and it was all very yummy. He even garnished the mac salad with a couple of home grown nasturtiums.

Hot and Sweaty

I'm tired of this weather. Blah....