Missing The Hummingbird Whisperer...

There are not many events that could bring me out of my sabbatical on the Island of Zanzibar. Two events have taken place to draw me back to reality for a bit. One of which I'll discuss in this post, the other will have to wait.
Had you been a loyal reader you might remember my posts back in May of 2009 about my garden and how my neighbor was a "true" gardener or my post from Aug of 2009 and My Neighbors The Hummingbird Whisperers". These neighbors built their house at the same time we did and have tolerated more than their share over the last 15 years from our side of the fence. It's so hard for me to even write about this, but our dear friend and neighbor, Kevin, lost his battle with cancer last week. He was 48. Like most people who lose someone they care about, it's not real yet. Kevin and his wife are two of the kindest people you could ever hope to live next to. They were not nosy and didn't complain when I was. As a matter of fact, they never complained when our dogs barked at them or when we were loud or ever for anything. Kevin was an easygoing, roll with it kind of person...as far as we knew. I wish we knew him better, I wish I had played more pool with him, drank more beer with him, etc.

I used to call him the Hummingbird Whisperer because we both had hummingbird feeders on our back decks, but theirs always had hummingbirds buzzing all around it and ours would be empty. After we found out he had passed away we were sitting on our back deck and hummingbirds were litterally buzzing past our heads and there were a bunch of them...like never before. I thought to myself, "Must be Kev's way of letting us know he's OK now"...of course he's probably up in heaven listening to this saying, "Sure, whatever you want to believe" and having a good chuckle over it.

Kevin always had a remarkable garden...he grew pumpkins so big you couldn't pick them up. One year they used 3 or 4 huge pumpkins in a Fall display in their front yard. One night Kevin heard something out front and woke in time to watch some kids try to lift the pumpkins they had rolled to the street, into a pick up. I don't think any made it into the truck and Kev got a good laugh. This year he had some help, but he still planted his garden. His wife gave my daughter one of the small watermelons from his garden. She kept all the seeds from it so we can plant them next year. Wouldn't it be cool if we could do that every year and 20 years from now we would still have watermelons from Kevin's garden? Ok, now Kevin is up there saying "Um, I've seen your gardening skills, good luck with that!"
It never seems to make sense when someone who is the epitome of "a good person" is taken from us too soon...I have to believe that God needed someone really special for some reason and chose Kevin...it doesn't make me feel better and it still seems unfair...I just feel so blessed to have known him at all. Thanks, Kev, for being a good example for us and our kids.

As Luck Would Have It....

Do you know who this is?

I could not believe my luck! Just a few weeks ago we were a flood disaster zone here, but yesterday we were unseasonably warm in the 80's...so I decided to take the kids to the zoo! It was a bit crowded, but that was to be expected with the nice weather. When I got up to the entrance to pay, they handed me a pamphlet of the day's events. I almost had to read it twice...Dr. Jane Goodall was there speaking and doing a book signing event! Are you kidding! OMG...she is....wait...what did you say? Who IS she? OK, I can deal with my kids not knowing who she is, but my peeps? She is the woman who, way back in the late 1950's, went to Africa and lived with the gorillas and chimps! Amazing woman, to say the least. I got some eye-rolling and snickering from my kids and their friends...as much as I wanted to rush right over to where she would be speaking, we did go there to walk around the zoo. So I painstakingly walked with my 9 year-old to see each and every animal and let her take pictures of every one until we got to the event area. She was only scheduled to speak for 1/2 hr and only had 10 minutes left by the time we got there. I was still amazed by her and her dedication to environmental causes...in between yelling at my daughter for taking off on me while I was trying to take pictures of Dr. Goodall!

Philosophically Speaking....

I'm taking a moment to climb up on my soapbox...run for hills, people! Although I originally began this blog so I could express my true opinions without fear of people judging me...I more or less ended up using it to find humor in everyday things. However, once in a while I feel I have access to this medium that could allow me to do some good.
Regardless of your religious afiliations or beliefs, there is no denying something funky is happening in the world these days; earthquakes, tsunami's, flooding, Coke Pepsi and Dr. Pepper all in the same commercial together. Those of us with any religious background thinks of all the verbage about the end of the world and wonders if this is it. Not sure I'm willing to go that far, but I do think it gives one pause to reflect on your own life. If you were to be taken out of this world tomorrow, would you be satisfied with what you had accomplished? I know, I know, a little deep, even for me. I personally feel as though I should try to leave this world a little better than when I came into it. I always tell Mike that when I die, I don't want my headstone to say I had a clean house, I want it to say something about how I gave back...I am still working on that. So maybe this week everyone can take a step back and think about this question..."satisfied" can mean so many different things to different people as well as what you have accomplished. I think our actions would have a rippling effect like the whole "pebble in the pond" idea...people see you giving back and they want to as well. Or they stand there saying, "What the hell are you throwing pebbles for?"

Recent Flooding Spawns Idiot Sightings....

We here in the Northeast are just emerging from record flooding. Many people have suffered severe damage and loss during last week's flooding. As a result of the heavy rains we naturally have an increase in the amount of pot holes in our roads. Now I realize I tend to pick on stupid drivers, but when it comes to pot holes, you really need to be paying attention. I, myself, have hit a few "good" ones this season...and by "good" ones, I mean they swallowed my front end and I started looking to see where my tires would land after they popped off.
Here is the situation: you are driving down a street, there are 2 lanes, one going in each direction...there is a car coming the other way...you come to a large pot hole in the road...what do you do? Apparently the right answer is "swerve into oncoming traffic, close your eyes and hope for the best!"...because I can't tell you how many times I have had to stop for a car that has swerved into my lane to avoid a pot hole! Idiots! These are probably the same people that don't put money in parking meters and ride their bikes on the sidewalks...I can't handle the chaos!

Laser Tag and The Elevator of Doom...

Oh yeah, I'm gettin' Mom of the Year for this one. Two weeks ago it was my daughter's 13th birthday. She had asked to take a few of her friends to play laser tag for her birthday, which we had agreed to. We would need to take both our cars to get them all there, but we didn't mind. I had never been but my daughter has been with friends before and loves it. It wasn't a problem until my father-in-law had to have emergency open heart surgery and my husband had to fly to FL a few days before the scheduled laser tag. Her friends had already responded to invites so I couldn't change it...no, I roped my Mom into helping me drive them there. The laser tag place is located in a city not familiar to us but we found the building OK...it looked like a huge, run down mill-type building. When we entered we noticed a man standing at the elevator on his cell phone - he told us he couldn't get the elevator to work...he kept getting on and the door would close, but it wouldn't move up or down so he was calling one of the businesses in the building to see what was going on. You have to understand, the inside of the building looked like it hadn't seen a makeover...ever...not since it was built...and the elevator was small...very, very small. My mother and I are claustrophobic so we both said "let's just take the stairs"...easy solution, right? No can do..the door to the stairs only opens from the inside. The elevator worked for a group of boys we let cut us so we could see if they plummeted to their death instead of us...I tried really hard not to show any fear...my poor Mother, however, wore fear like a badge of honor...she wasn't going to get on the elevator but I pulled her in at the last minute. We were 9 people squished in a small elevator that was chugging slowly towards the 4th floor when one of Jamie's friends jumped up high and came crashing down...because she thought it would be funny....we could all feel the elevator temporarily stop when she jumped and I thought I was going to pass out...the fear inside me took over and shrieked for her to please not do that again! We were all quite happy to make it to the 4th floor. The place is filled with a multitude of extremely loud games that kids can spend money on while waiting for their turn to play laser tag...when I say loud, I think my Mom and I had two totally different conversations even though we were talking to each other...When we went to leave, there was a line for the rickety elevator so it was an easy decision to take the stairs down and avoid the Elevator of Doom.

Life Is One Big Septic System...

It's all about how you filter out the crap! We've been having issues with our septic system so I thought a septic themed topic would be appropriate.

I know, I know. You haven't heard from me in a while. 2009 was a doosey...it was a tough year for us. 2010 didn't start off so rosy either. I have been in such a funk, the motivation to write just wasn't there. My friend, Kori, asked why she hadn't seen anything from me, and I said, "Because life is really sucking right now" and she said that's what I should write about! I wasn't sure, but then more and more people have been asking where I've been....so here we go....

I know more about septic systems now than I ever thought was possible. I am on a first name basis with the guy at the Board of Health in my city. We were going to get it done at the end of last year and had signed up for a guy to do it without asking many questions...fortunately something sent a red flag up for me and when I started digging, I found out he was lying to me...nasty bugger! So I've read a ton online and asked a bunch of questions from a bunch of people. When we built our house 14 years ago, no one told us we had to do anything different with a septic system. Neither of us had experience with a septic system so all we did was get it pumped every few years. Now I know those little wipes we got the kids that say "flushable" should NEVER be used in a septic system and that we should have been using special toilet paper all these years...did you know that septic systems work by using bacteria so when you use ANTI-BACTERIAL hand soap or anything, you are killing the bacteria that make your septic system work? I know that now! Now that we get a puddle in our front lawn anytime someone takes a shower longer than 2 minutes! So we will be having our front lawn dug up and share the stench with our neighbors while the job is being done.
Life really is like a septic system...it runs quite smoothly when all the crap is filtered out...don't ya think?

How About Some Freebies With Your Order?

I frequently peruse magazines for good deals and here and there I have tried to pass them on to you, my peeps. I read about this site: www.heyitsfree.net that supposedly lists all the truly no-strings-attached free deals out there. So I went on to check out the site...and I was hooked. I had to stop at some point because I was gaining such momentum in my freebie frenzy that I almost requested free samples of cooking spices! Me! They would look nice in the kitchen but I wouldn't have a clue what to do with them. Then I started thinking to myself..."in 6-8 weeks I'm either going to start getting all kinds of cool stuff in the mail, or my computer is going to start crashing from all the spam I'll be getting from these sites I just gave all my info to!"....so ask me how I'm doing in 6-8 weeks...

Another site I have mentioned before, but worth another mention is www.6pm.com
Sign up to get their daily deals emailed to you. You might get sick of seeing their email every day, but in the subject line is usually listed the 3 or 4 brands that are on sale for that day only. If you have children (like me) that will only wear certain brands or shoes or clothes, you can great some great deals. A good example: Dansko makes great shoes for people who need comfort, but they are expensive. This past Sunday they had a $115.00 pair of shoes for only $28! You heard me....a little word to the wise though, don't wait until later in the day to go back and order as they do run out of sizes.

My last little tid bit for you today is www.dailygrommet.com - this site features one little-known, yet useful product each day. At least that's how it was described in the article I was reading. I've checked it out...I would say some of the items should stay "little-known"...who needs an invisible belt?

Try To Remember People, I'm A Good, Catholic Girl...

There is nothing I can do now but apologize to all my adoring fans. I was hacked. I had not been on my blog since my last post on December 11, 2009...you know how it is, the Holidays, the stress, etc....so I went on the other night with the intention of posting something new and I thought I had accidentally clicked into someone else's site...it took me a few seconds to figure out my blog had been hacked. There, at the top of the screen, was an inappropriate cartoon with an unGodly amount of html code. So if you did happen to view my blog while this was posted and thought to yourself, "Hmm, she seems to have changed the general undertones of her postings"...shame on you! Remember, I'm a good, Catholic girl. I hope viewing this posting didn't cause any harm to anyone's computer...I have no idea how hacking works so I'm assuming it was just random and for the most part, harmless. If you didn't view the post while it was up, I'm not going to tell you what the cartoon was...no I'm not going to refer to the cartoon Avatar and Smurf at all nor what they were supposed to be doing...