Pig Roast, McCain & Palin

Saturday afternoon my parents were invited to a pig roast at a nearby neighbors house. They had met the neighbors in their downtown area during the week and were invited to the party. My parents had old cars in common with the neighbors and they were invited to drive their car down for the festivities.



Arriving in town for the Detroit Tigers game, we were also invited to come down. Mind you, I had no idea what the occasion was. I thought maybe it was a party to support McCain and Palin as there were signs everywhere. I even took pictures of McCain and Palin with my parents. I never realized how photogenic Palin is - she didn't blink once!







The party included the pig roast in addition to live pigs in the mud. I felt a little sorry for the pigs that found themselves missing their longtime friend...

















In addition to the pig roast there were a couple of the balloon bounces, face painting and a cotton candy machine! There was horseback riding and hot air balloon rides. There was even a beer trailer. Entertainment included a live band, a magician and a drill team presentation. I was clearly amazed that so much was being provided for a "just because" party or possibly a "work party"!

Football Survivor Pool

In addition to the posting on things happening for a reason with my tire gage, my son's football pick was based on gut instinct.

See, I encourage gambling.

If drinking was legal, I may encourage drinking too. It seems that when things are made available, more often than not, we don't want them. France doesn't seem to have an issue with drinking and they don't have a drinking age. For now my son says that he never wants to try drinking, I'll give him a few years. He has had "beer bread" which he freaked out about initially but later admitted he tried it and "it was good".

Back to the gambling...years ago my son received his first instant lottery ticket. He's even helped pick numbers in my occasional lottery picks. There have been a few times he won with a scratch off ticket, but the losses far exceed. I used to give him the option of getting money or lottery tickets and he quickly learned that lottery tickets weren't worth the risk.

The Survivor football pool is a different story.

This is the third year that my son, now 11, has participated in a Survivor football pool. He loves football and it is a great way for him to follow the game and have fun. The first year he made it to week 6. Tonight he reminded me of that fateful turn of events during the game that knocked him out. Last year, he wasn't so fortunate to make it past the first week. This year, he's survived past week #4. A great feat since he has surpassed 42 fellow gamblers that have all reached their demise.

There are 6 people left in the pool. My son would love to win it and of course with the entrance fee and my fees, he'll be lucky to get even 30%, but the gloating that he's made it as far as he has is pretty cool. He's even decided that if he wins, we should purchase a Wii (afterall it will be great exercise for us both!).

As for the gut instinct, my son decided not to go with Denver or Dallas this week, both favored to win. He said something in his gut said that they would both be upsets, and they were!

Maybe it's luck. Maybe it's talent. But whatever it is, by golly I think he's got it!

Car Woes & Appreciation

Things happen for a reason. Whether the "Earth Moves Under My Feet" or that women's intuition, or that gut instinct or just because, things DO happen for a reason.

Take for instance my recent purchase of a tire gauge this past Monday. I have no idea how to USE a tire gauge, but I felt it imperative that I buy one (and why not on a Meijer 15% sale day to boot?). Tonight, my tire gauge came in handy! I left my mom and step-dad's house a little before 8:30p.m., which is 150+ miles and approximately 2.5 hours. T was all showered and dressed in his pj's to sleep en route.

I stopped at a gas station about 15 miles away to fill up before getting on the highway. A very nice man at the pump next to me pointed out that my tire was "low". Now that was a complete understatement! Low is how I felt all day as I laid low enjoying napping and watching football. Low is my investment in my 401k (Ok, that is beyond low). Low is...well, you get my point. My tire was almost FLAT! Maybe the nice gentleman didn't want to overwhelm me, maybe in the dark he thought that my hair was blond, maybe he really did think it was low. Regardless, there I was on a Sunday night in the middle of nowhere, two hours from home and .5 hour from my parents with a flat tire. Sigh...

I give appreciation to this man and his ever patient and loving wife (I'm assuming she was - since she never once glared at he or I, nor did she beep the horn impatiently). He and I pondered my options. He even verified that my spare (aka donut) had air! He also drove his car over to the air pump and assisted me as I filled the tire with air. He had a tire gauge and when I said I didn't know how to use it, he tested the tire pressure for me. I then proceeded to grab my new one out of the car, opened it up and he used mine too. Of course there was about a 4# difference between the two gauges, but at least I knew what mine read when I ventured back on the road. The man was more than pleasant and we talked about how far I had to go and he asked where I lived and inquired about my son.

I didn't drive over 70mph the entire way home. I even stopped three times to check the tire pressure and added air once. I have since mastered the use of my tire gauge!

It is wonderful to know that there are still good people willing to lend a helping hand. To the nameless man and his patient wife at the Speedway on a Sunday night, Thank You!

House - Loving It

Last night, I pulled up to my house and I'm SPEECHLESS! (It doesn't happen very often, seriously.)



I LOVE MY HOUSE! Mind you, it isn't finished. But E has spent some serious time working on the house, all day. (It helped the progress on my house that he turned his ignition key the wrong way when listening to his radio and found his battery dead in the middle of my driveway! But I'm not complaining - it looks awesome!)



There is something about a vision coming to matriculation. Of actually imagining something and seeing it, the way that you anticipated and sometimes even better. My house has character. My house isn't done, but 3/4th's of the house has two coats of the "weekend getaway" green. Still need another coat on the driveway side and to paint the garage, but it's coming together nicely. Then on to painting the columns, gutters and base with fresh coats of the existing color.



It's so cool to see change. Especially when change is welcoming. We are heading out of town for the rest of the weekend and while I haven't even left yet, I'm looking forward to coming home to see the progress!

Columns or No Columns?????

I swung by the house after a late lunch with JN to see if E was at the house painting. I hadn't heard from him all day and I could only guess what he may be doing. I was pretty thrilled to see the house when I approached the neighbors driveway. I wish (maybe more than once) that my house was bigger and lurking out amongst my neighbors so that I could see it up the road, but I can't. All I can ever see from up the street are my crazy iris and my rhododendron bush that is strategically placed in the middle of my yard.

When I get out of the car, E is there painting. He's made significant progress on the house and I'm ecstatic, until...Until E starts dancing around half mumbling something about "Change". I hear "change" and "embracing" and some "oh's and ah's" which can only mean it's not good. Not good at all.

But from first glance, I don't notice anything that would revel me into a down whirl spire of angst and potential anger. And then I walk to the back of the house.






AND I'M PISSED! I'm livid that I made it very clear, MANY times that I wanted character in my house. I know that E, the painter has these ideas of his own, but after nine years I want to show the character that my little charming house has (or at least make some attempt to show it)!

I try to be rash. I TRY! See, because I think for the most part, I can try to remove myself from the initial shock and see things clearly (most of the time - although sometimes it takes me a few minutes - err days - err years!). And to be honest, the green columns didn't look bad. They actually look good, but IT IS NOT WHAT I WANT.

So, a quick blog to get some opinions and a chocolate peanut butter chip cookie later, I'm dealing. And what I decide is that I LOVE THE COLUMNS A DIFFERENT COLOR. JA likes them green. JN things the off-white/light tan whateveryoucallit color of the house looks pink. E thinks the color looks peach. Maybe I AM COLOR BLIND.

What it comes down to is regardless of all the finite decisions of what trim, corner, column to color what color, I made a decision. I had the image in my mind and while I've made a few changes, I'm not going to concede to another one, five or nine years of a house lackluster in character and in one color.

Not this year, at least.