Avenue Q

Today's big excitement was our trip to the Beautiful Orpheum to see Avenue Q.

We laughed our big old bellies off.

They insulted everybody. Just imagine muppets on crack and you got it.

A few people left because they were offended by the talk of the Japanese, Fat, Unemployed, Japanese, Chinese, Germans, Jews. Scientologists and Gays.

Just be prepared...You will never look at puppets again in the same way. And those Care Bears.... "The Bad Idea Bears" They lived with Robert since infancy, 0bviously.

So if you get a chance to see the show, go. Don't take your kids. They don't need to see puppets doing the nasty.

Shopping Sunday

Not really a whole bunch to yak about today.

Everyone be sure to go back a couple of days to the big mattress entry. The comments have taken on a life of their own, and Pepper has added her picture to the comments, so I want to be sure everyone sees Pepper. Her daddy won't do a blog for her, so no one knows what she looks like, or anything.

Today's adventure was to go buy Bennie another pair of pants. Now Bennie is the ultimate in shoppers, and refuses to spend much money on himself. (Don't pat him on the back too hard. What he won't spend on himself in clothes, he makes up in computer parts.)

Last week, while he was off, he ventured out to his old stomping grounds, which is basically Bartlett, (nice place), Raleigh,(Ummmm) and then Frayser.(Run for your life.)

Last weeks visit was to the only remaining KMart in Memphis, which is in Raleigh. He found some pants he liked, and some polo type shirts. He bought a couple of pair of the pants, but decided he wanted more. Se we locked the car doors and went to KMart. I may start shopping at KMart again. Such bargains. But the fun part....We found some big print party shirts, and he let me buy them for the cruise. You will have to wait for the post cruise blogs for all of them, but I did get him to pose in one. Notice the martini print. Look out Cozumel. Bennie is coming to town!!!!!

(Pepper, white trash does not drink out of martini glasses.) (And finding a place in this house right now to take a picture without including a shot of a bed part is kinda difficult.)

Oh, yeah, Sadie is cute.

Sadie Saturday

It has been a pretty quiet Saturday. Cindy and Sadie came out for the afternoon. But it was pretty uneventful! Cindy wouldn't even play Wii with me. She didn't want the little voice on the game to talk about her weight. She ran to Walmart, and bought Sex and the City, so we watched that. I cooked dinner. Nothing burned. Pretty boring day.

Sadie, of course, hit the door running. She found the mattress on the floor. I'm sure she will be disappointed when she comes back and the mattress is in the right place.

And that has been our Saturday. Aren't you glad you came by?

Mattress Friday

I am forced to blog today, because my friend Jeanie is trying to out do me in mattress purchases. I'm sorry. This just can't happen. Today is Mattress Friday.

I took today off to wait for our new mattress. The slotted arrival time was between 10 and 3. The mattress was delivered about 11:00. No major deal. But the guys that delivered the mattress were hilarious. Both were Mexican. The driver was probably 5'5" and weighed around 250 pounds. He came to the door, laid out the red carpet for the mattress delivery, then stood aside. The other guy was maybe 4'10" and weighed maybe 90 pounds. First he came up with the first section of box spring. Back to the truck, and he comes up with the second box spring. As he headed back to the truck, I told large guy, "If he brings that mattress up here all alone, you should be ashamed." He said, oh yeah. He carries them all the time. And sure enough, here comes small guy with a king size plush mattress. I was afraid the camera would be offensive, so you will have to take my word for it.

Well, I guess I should digress. I have been up since 3:00am. No reason. So after Bennie left for work, I got dressed and went to Wal mart for some groceries. While I was shopping, my cell phone rang, and it was the Select Comfort people. They finally have my pickup of the Sleep Number Bed set for next Thursday. And I have decided that since I have to pay them to come and get the stupid thing, it will be intact when they come, and they will earn the money. So my Sleep Number Bed is still in place. And the new mattress and box springs started out in the dining room. But I didn't like the way the mattress looked standing on its side. So I moved it to the floor of the den.

And I guess it will stay there until next Thursday. Anyone wanting to sleep this weekend, come on over. We have plenty of spots to lay your head.

OK, Jeanie. Let's see how many mattresses you can get into your condo!!!

It's Thursday!!!!

I know.It's been half a week since I last blogged. I'm boring. I was all ready to party all week, and Bennie's school got cancelled. Oh, well. I didn't have any exciting plans anyway. Brenda and I got our night out, so that was good. We went to Corky's, then to TCBY for dessert. Not so much party animals, but we had a good time.

Came home last night, nothing exciting. Seems Cindy and Sadie went to Shady Pines. Cindy pulled her old trick of locking her keys in the car. But guess what??? She's married now, and she took her extra keys away from me and gave them to her husband. And of course, last night was his late night. So Cindy and Sadie sat on the curb at Shady Pines for 3 hours waiting on Mike to get off work. Sorry Sindy. Oooh. typo...But I think I just shorthanded Cindy and Sadie. Sindy. Much easier.....

That's not quite the accurate story, but since I wasn't there, and I am relying on 2nd and 3rd hand reports, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Poor Sindy. Sitting on the curb, in the freezing cold, waiting on Mike to come rescue them....



I woke up this morning when Bennie got up. So rather than lay in bed like a bump for an hour, I got up and decided to do something.



Wii Fit. I haven't been on it for about a month now. So I dusted it off. Did my 30 minutes. I was 2 pounds lighter than last time, which is good for a month! and I regained my title of #1 stepper. And hooper!



All this before 7:00 am! So off to work. Everyone have a good day!

Happy Birthday Jeanie

This has been the week for birthdays. Today is my friend Jeanie's birthday. She is one of my WW peeps. Kind of a kindred spirit. She is as serious about weight loss as I am. We will get around to it soon! Happy birthday Jeanie.

I have been scolded. Yesterday's blog was all about Not Sadie. Sorry.

I didn't sleep well last night. It was about 3:00 am before I fell asleep. so needless to say I slept in a little this morning. When I got up, Bennie was about 1/3 of the way through cleaning out his "office". We discussed the situation yesterday, and he decided to get a head start on cleaning it. So I got started on the rest of the house. It's been a while since it has been cleaned. And my house cleaner and I are out of sync on a cleaning schedule. So I cleaned until about 3:00. Then we got changed and went to Logan's (steakhouse, not dog). Big disappointment. The food was nothing but pepper. (spice, not dog).

A quick stop at Bed,Bath and Beyond. Picked up a mattress topper for our third mattress of the year, coming next week. And some towels and washclothes. Such an exciting day. We came home and Ta-Da! Filled the Hot Tub. The world is about to get right now. It has been drained since the thermometer outside was higher than the thermometer in the hot tub. But once the evening temp drops below 70, it is perfect weather. I'm so ready. And so are my neck muscles!

This is a weird week. Bennie has obligations that keep him away from home almost every night this week, so it's party week for me. AND all the TV shows have season premieres this week. There will be excitement all around!

McKenzie's 8!

We made all our appointed rounds this morning, and went to the credit union, made a deposit,went to Mattress Firm and bought another mattress, (CAH) went to Men's Warehouse and swapped cars with Mike, went to Houston's for lunch, went back to Men's Warehouse to get the birthday presents out of the trunk that we forgot, then we headed to Putt Putt. Whew!

I haven't been to Putt Putt in YEARS. Boy am I out of sync. I told Bennie to get all of our quarters and take, because the kids always need more quarters for the games......Duh. Not only to you have to have tokens, the preferred payment for the games is a RELOADABLE CARD!!!! Tons of 3 foot tall kids running around with reloadable debit cards to play skeeball!!! Holy Crap. The good news is, I got to come home with all my quarters! (I bet the casino on the cruise doesn't take quarters anymore either)

So first, we had the party room. Pizza, presents and CAKE.

Then we proceeded outside to the bumper boats and go carts. MAN!!!! I was reliving Cindy's childhood. But it was neat to watch the kids.

McKenzie is such a camera babe. She will be frowning one minute, then see the camera and turn on the charm. She told me today that she isn't going to become a vet when she grows up, she is going to be a singer. She has the camera part already! What a cutie.

Michael is adorable, too. Such a sweet face. And he and Grandpa Bennie share a love of video games. Got a couple of cute shots of Michael on the go carts.

It was a fun afternoon. I'm going to have to get my baby and go play one day soon! (I keep forgetting to grow up.)

Soggy Saturday

Good morning everyone! Just a quick drive-by to say hi!

Bennie worked on Cindy's car last night. I'm not a mechanic, but he showed me her brake pads. They were gone. So Hopefully she will be able to brake for a little while longer.

The Sleep number bed is in the process of being returned. I decided that if I was going to wake up with numb hand, I could do it on a cheaper mattress. So back to the mattress shopping we go.

We have a birthday party today at the Putt Putt. Hope the rain moves on out, so she can have a good party.

Well, lots to do! Everyone have a good day.

Hi Rebel!

Sadie is Cute.

Logan and Rebel on Labor day

First things first.

I talked to Brenda last night. She had a story that is truly blog worthy. And Pepper, since you have taken over as Editor in Chief, and mainly just edit reports from other sources, here is your CAH for the week.

I'll try to keep it brief. It seems that Brenda's youngest daughter, Anna, has moved back home for her last year of college. (Or until a better spot comes available.) With Anna comes baggage. Lots of legs. At the moment, she has a cat, Jasmine, (achoo) and a black lab named Kelsey. Add that to the reigning ruling rooster, Logan.

Well, Brenda was pulling out of her driveway before the crack of dawn last week, and saw the cat behind her car. The cat was acting skiddish, so she had to coax the cat to get her close enough to grab. She finally did, then threw the cat into the house and left. Well, over the next few days, she complained to Anna that the cat wasn't acting right, and Anna would look and the cat was fine. Until finally, Anna called Brenda at work, all choked up. Brenda was fearing the worst, thinking that Anna was hysterical. And she was. But she was laughing. Seems Brenda had grabbed a stray cat and thrown it into the house. And for several days, it went undetected. Everytime Brenda saw the cat, Jasmine was safely tucked away in Anna's bed, where she was supposed to be. Cat #2, (who's family no doubt was frantically looking for it) was torturing Kelsey and Logan. So Brenda threw Cat #2 out, and all is well. Hopefully, the distraught family found it's little kitty and all is well. (Does that make CAH?)

After work tonight, Bennie and I travelled to Olive Branch. He has to do some work on Cindy's car, so we swapped cars with her. We met her and Mike at O'Charley's and had a nice dinner. Sadie wasn't allowed in the restaurant, so Grandpa Bennie sent steak home to her. Last I heard, Sadie was scooting her china plate across the tile floor. Of course, it was a Louisiana Cajun steak, so Sadie may be experiencing her first bout of Cajun spices. She will be looking for a Popsicle to sit on tomorrow.

Then we went to Shady Pines to see the rest of the Mississippians. There was a potluck dinner in progress. So we went and visited with everyone there, but I was anxious to see Rebelbuddy.
There have been many false starts with LuAnn and dogs recently, so I was hesitant to make a declaration that there was a new dog in the family. Rebel was brought to the fold by Robert, and he claimed that he was going to keep Rebel, he just needed a chance to blah, blah, blah. Guess what? If you want to keep your dog, don't let it stay at Lu's house...... She fought not to get too attached. But guess what. Rebelbuddy is a DOLL! He is a sweetheart. And he is Lu's. Robert, you will just have to go find another dog. Better yet, don't. Your mom can't have but one in the condo. So you can't unload any more on her. But you did good with this one. (Having trouble getting used to the name Rebel. Cindy named him Buddy. LuAnn calls him meatball or something...)(CAH)

He has grown some, but not much. He still has puppy teeth. And he is so sweet. And I think we all love him already. It doesn't take long!

It was a pretty short visit, because we had to drive back across country to get home. But it was a nice diversion for a Thursday.

Now Bennie has a car to fix tomorrow night. His granddaughter, McKenzie has a birthday Saturday at Putt Putt. So we have a party Saturday. And I'll actually have some pictures of his grandkids on here!

It's Wednesday Already!

My mouth survived. And I'm thinking that the Hummer in the parking lot may not have belonged to Max. My apologies. He did not replace half the teeth in my mouth for gas money. But still. Bennie has an appointment in 2 weeks to get a crown, and I still have one to do after the first of the year. Can life get any more exciting?

I called yesterday and made appointments for Bennie and Me to get those exams you are supposed to get after you turn 50. I'm only 3 years late. That will be later in the year, just getting you ready for the excitement to come. I'm sure I will have a very exciting blog when that day comes.

Cindy and Mike came out last night and picked up the mattress with the GayleandBennie imprints. She seems to think that sleeping in a sinkhole won't be bad. But since Sadie grew to full size plus, they have decided that a king size bed would be nice so Sadie will have plenty of room to stretch out. As it is now, Sadie stretches out, but Cindy and Mike cling to the sides of the bed to keep from falling off.

While they were in transit from Olive Branch to Oakland back to Olive Branch (With a bed strapped to the truck) (White Trash), Sadie was visiting with LuAnn and Rebel. Rebel seems to have made the transition from temporary dog to permanent dog. Rebel, Sadie and LuAnn then went and visited Ghia and Paw. Sounds like they had a nice visit. Sadie has been outgrown, but Rebel hasn't realized that he can bitch-slap Sadie yet. He's still is a sweet boy and hopefully will stay that way. Sadie needs to rule. She suffers from short dog syndrome and likes being top dog. Stay tuned to see how long Rebel lets her rule the roost.

I had a sort visit this morning from Paw. I had put him on a quest to find me some of the Bob's soft peppermints, and brought them to me. (Since the dentist took away my Red Hots) .

My boss decided he wanted chicken for lunch, and took me to Gus's for lunch. So I had me some fried chicken for lunch.

Then my mom came by for her Wednesday visit. It was short today. She didn't bring me anything, so I sent her on her way.

Nothing else much to report, so I'll stop now. I don't intend for tonight to have any excitement, but I may add a picture or two when I get home, so Cindy will look at the blog.

Dentist

OUCH!!!!

Happy Birthday Sherry

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHERRY LYNN TALENT ALLIE IRENE VASCUE MCDONALD!!!



Todays blog is dedicated to My Friend Sherry. When I was growing up, I was blessed to have 2 friends that have remained with me throughout my life. Sherry is one of them.



Her husband's job has taken her out of the Memphis Area, and we have had to stay in touch by phone, mail and finally, thankfully, emails. She still makes it to Memphis occasionally and sometimes road trips throw us in the same area code, and we get a chance to visit.



Last year was double lucky. She came to Cindy's wedding, and actually spent the night with me, so after getting Cindy on the road, I had someone occupy my mind.



Then later that summer, her Daughter Lori, got married, in Destin. So Bennie and I took that opportunity to take a vacation and attending Lori's wedding on the beach in Destin.



I was hoping to get to meet Sherry in Nashville this weekend, but it looks like our plans have been postponed. I was hoping to be able to finally get to take her to dinner near her birthday!



Oh, well. I am left with my next best option. Give her a blog entry.



Sherry, I hope you have a great birthday.

Reunion

Well, the day started late. I actually slept until 9:00. Seems the sleep number bed is quiet comfortable when assembled correctly. Duh. So, 1 point for the bed. It's still on a trial. But I am happier today. Bennie is trying to figure out if her and drill holes in the bedroom wall and put the pump in the closet so he can adjust his number in the middle of the night. I'll let you know what Inspector Gadget comes up with.

So I had just gotten stirring. Well, actually I was sitting in bed reading the newspaper. I hadn't actually stirred out of the bed yet. I had my day planned and had plenty of time. Then Bennie's phone rang. A firetruck in Germantown is broken. Pretty standard these days. But he gets a couple of hours overtime, and we have a bed to pay for. So broken firetrucks are good. We rapidly decided that I would go with him and we would fix the firetruck, then head to the reunion. So I rushed and got dressed and off we went.

I have to confess. I know that firemen and policeman and the mechanics that have to keep them running aren't impressed. But I'm a little girl. I LOVE firetrucks and most police, except the ones in Oakland. So I got a kick out of going. I got a couple of shots. Of course, they were ragging me about trying to get proof that Bennie actually worked, but we all know he works!

So I dropped him off, and ran over to Schnucks to pick up stuff I needed. I snuck this covert picture of the broken firetruck from across the street.

I checked to be sure that the repairs weren't compete, then I headed to BolaPasta to get the salad I had ordered. Had I known I was going to be in Germantown, I would have made different plans. But, oh well. I picked up the salads and came back. Firetruck is not repairable by one mechanic with out a new alternator. And Firetrucks-R-Us is closed on Saturdays. So I got to go inside and talk to the firemen while Bennie changed into his reunion clothes.

We swapped horror stories about the Oakland Police, talked about sauerkraut, and my cute little fireman from my fishing story a couple of months ago asked me to stay and go fishing with him. Seems his luck with catching those huge fish hasn't been the same without me. I told him I would have to come back another time!

So off to the reunion we went. I have a couple of shots. Bennie's daughter Kelley showed up.






All his aunts and uncles, one sister made it, the other that lives in Nashville couldn't be sure there would be gas available, so she didn't come! It was a nice gathering. Of course, I didn't know many of them, but I'm glad we got a chance to go.







Oh, yeah...There was CAKE!

We stopped by a condo in Memphis on our way home. Oh, my goodness. Of course, I'm in love and ready to move. But Bennie reminded me I really want to quit work too, so oh well. I guess Oakland is still looking good!

So, home we are, waiting for our Ike rain that is headed this way. And the cool weather headed this way. I'm tired of being HOT!

Finally Friday

I started to blog at 8:30 this morning, because all of the excitement I can handle for one day happened before I got to work.

To start, I made the decision that my stupid sleep system was going back to the store today. I woke up at 4:00 AGAIN this morning, and my side of the bed was hard as a rock. Bennie is peacefully sleeping. I broke my rule (it's my rule. I'll break it if I want too.) I played with my remote. It had decided my sleep number was over 80. NOT! So I fumed and got up. When Bennie got up I announced he better get it fixed. So he was going to take the pump to the store and swap it out and see if that fixed it. So we started disassembling the bed. Guess what we found? Frick and Frack, the bed assemblers, twisted the hose to my side of the bed. Without the twist, it seems to work perfectly. So I called the store, told them their assemblers were idiots. I felt better. So the bed gets a reprieve for a few days to see if I like sleep numbers or not! That would be if I get to actually chose my sleep number.

So, that dilemma behind me, off I go to pick Kim up. The rest of this story is her fault. Or Bennie's. Or Cindy's. You decide.

I took Bennie's car to work today, so he could work on my car. His speedometer is stupid. It doesn't have many numbers on it, and I have trouble finding 45 on there. It is somewhere between 40 and 60. So is 57. That is the number the policeman told me he saw on his radar. In my defense, Bennie's dumb Magellan was yakking at me, his XM radio was up too loud, Cindy had called and I was talking to her and Kim was breathing the air in my car. So all those things grouped together caused me to get pulled over by the Oakland Police Department. He asked me why I was going so fast, and I explained, nicely, that I was not accustomed to driving that car. (I thought about telling him it was stolen, but decided against it.) And he peeked at the speedometer, and saw that it was, indeed, stupid. And he wrote me a warning.

So the traffic spirits were with me, and I got off easy.

Remember when we first moved to Oakland, and I had the official bet going who would get the first ticket? I jumped out there and got the first ticket for running a stop sign. So now, I have lead the pack and gotten the first speeding ticket. For all of you people that do not live in Oakland, I believe that this was because I am an Oakland resident and they have started being more forgiving to residents. So that means that non-residents are getting the shaft. So if you come to visit me, remember....Do the speed limit!!!!

Bennie went to the doctor today for a physical. He came out a-ok. But he called me on his way home and said if I got a chance to go fill his car up with gas. The gas prices had gone up 35 cents from when he left this morning. so I ran out and got gas. And yes, it has gone up. And people are lining up like its the last gas they will ever buy. (Yes, I was in the line. But I don't want to be stuck at home!)

All this, and it's not even 5:00 yet. But I'm about to head home, doing the speed limit, thank you.

Thursday already???

I wasn't going to do this, but I got a frantic call from Cindy telling me to check out HER blog. She made her semi annual entry on her blog. So I stole the pictures. So you don't have to check out her blog now. All she did was put these 2 pic on. Sadie got a new BoBo.

Sadie is cute.

But since I'm here, yesterday's events went well. Mike's ear surgery went well. They got home about noon. He went back to the doctor today for a check, and every thing is going ok. I'm sure he's a little uncomfortable, and not resting well, and food is not agreeing with him....Doesn't sound like he's doing that good at all, does it. But Cindy just got back from Walgreens with some Ambien and a BoBo. Everything at Mt. Dickerson should be fine in a few minutes.

The jury is STILL out on the mattress. I like it, but there are a few glitches that we are having to deal with. My side of the bed doesn't deflate like it should. We are working through the glitches. I'll let you know how it goes. They have extended our 30 day trial, since we are having less than perfect experiences so far.

But the FUNNY thing.... I WAS sleeping last night, quite comfortably. I think the purpose of this sleep system is to set your number then leave it the hell alone, right? So at 4:00 this morning I am awakened by the pump turning on. The pump is actually pretty quiet, but when it is activated, it makes 3 clicks. Well, from a sound sleep, with the pump RIGHT under my head, I thought someone had cocked a gun and was fixing to shoot. So I flip over to see if there is a reason for the pump activation. Huddled over in the corner, Bennie has HIS remote (which is the remote that works) and was attempting to adjust his sleep number. He was trying to be stealthy, but the remote lights up, and his noggin head was illuminated by the remote light. So there have been a couple of changes.

#1- the pump has been moved to under HIS side of the bed.

#2-We don't adjust the sleep number while someone else is asleep.

Mattress Day

Well, no blog yesterday, because Bennie and I both went for our semi-annual tooth cleaning. It seems that our dentist, Max, is driving a new Hummer. In order to be able to afford a tank of gas, by the end on the day, our total is 2 mouths, 3 crowns and 3 fillings.

I go Monday for 1 crown and 2 fillings, Bennie will go one day next week for 1 crown, and after the first of the year when my dental insurance starts a new year, I will have a crown and filling.

That was a fun day!

Today was new mattress day. I am a little suspect of a mattress "system" that comes in boxes and can be put together.....

Here is a picture of the components....





See, once it is put together, it looks like a bed again.





And after a few minutes of playing with the remote controls and finding what our sleep numbers will be, it looks like my bed looks every morning.



Who ever thought that a journal entry about new mattresses would be "G" rated... Ain't old age great????

Let's see, in medical news, it seems Ghia may be coming down with a cold or allergies. Hope she gets to feeling better.

And Mike is having an outpatient procedure done tomorrow to hopefully rid him of that thing that keeps bothering his ear. And no, it is not Sadie. It's a real growth, not a 14 inch tongue. Hopefully, he will get a chance to heal before Sadie starts "helping" him keep it cleaned.
(Anyone else here see a cause for ear problems???)