Spendin' My Gift Cards


The kids have given me a couple of gift cards in the last year, and I have been waiting for the mood to strike me to spend them. One of them was a card for $25 at Joann Fabrics which I used to buy a zipper or something and then put it away in my wallet and forgot about it. The other was a Mother's Day card from Brian and Emily toward golf stuff at Dick's Sporting Goods. Well, today was pay day on the gift cards!


On my way back from getting my nails done this morning, I stopped at Joann Fabrics. Their superstore in Cranberry was having a lot of clearance on summer stuff. I used my gift card plus a few bucks and tax to get this mosaic-topped table to put on the porch. The wicker one we have been using is very ratty looking and isn't level enough to set a glass on without it tipping over. So I am thrilled with this new setup. This will be great for our long summer evenings on the porch after work.

After Joann's, I was on a roll. I swung by Dick's Sporting Goods on my way home, and they were ALSO having a summer clearance sale. I got a wonderful LizGolf skort and shirt with my Dick's gift certificate. For those of you who wonder why a golf skort is different from any other skort, the big answer is POCKETS. Lots of women's pants and skirts do not have pockets! I know, guys, this is hard to imagine for somebody who doesn't do a purse; but that's the way it is. This lack of pockets is a real pain in the wazoo on the golf course. Where do you put the tees and the extra balls and your marker and stuff? My new skort is RED with BIG WHITE POLKA DOTS like Minnie Mouse or Betty Boop. It is awesome. I got a plain, white golf shirt to go with it. The other thing about golf clothes that is good is that they are often made of moisture-wicking material that is cooler than regular clothes---and some of them even have UV protection in the fabric to keep you from getting sunburned. So golf clothes are kind of bionic.

I am tickled to death with my bargains and with using my presents on such fun stuff. It's like having a birthday and Mother's Day all over again in June.

I'm hoping to get Greg out later today to play 9 holes with me. I need the practice, and he hasn't been out this year. We used to play together almost every weekend, but this year has been busy with family travel. I just hate to waste a beautiful day like this at the computer . . . .

Working on the Porch and the Yard this week!

Mary and John have been getting the yard in shape and doing our mulch around the rain storms the last week or so. This was WONDERFUL for me because I have not had the time and energy to get around to it. Plus, Mary is a landscaper and does it better anyway. They finished up today and everything looks soooo beautiful!

In addition to the yard, the cushions on the rockers and the Papasan chair had been through two seasons; and they were not covered in outdoor fabric to begin with. They were looking pretty ragged, so I was watching Joann Fabric for some outdoor canvas to go on sale so I could recover everything. Last week, I hit the jackpot. I bought the fabric at 50 percent off; and I have been itching all week to get the new covers made.

After squeezing in 9 holes of golf this morning, I came back and started working on the new covers after lunch. Since I had made the covers once before, I simply took them off and used the OLD covers for the pattern to cut out the new ones. It went really fast, and I love the way they turned out! Those big pink and red geraniums on the green leafy background is bright and cheerful. It makes sitting on the porch even more relaxing.

Speaking of which, it's time for a glass of wine and a wonderful Saturday afternoon rock in the rocking chair out there. See ya'!

BROWN STAINS, OMG . . .

that's right, folks, on my underwear!!! I went to a breakfast meeting this morning at the Westin for the Athena Awards nominations. I poured myself a cup of Starbucks coffee in a paper cup and put a lid on it. The lid didn't fit very well. When I sat down a few minutes later and picked up the cup to take a drink using the hole in the lid, the coffee poured out between the cup and the lid. Before I realized what was happening, I poured about 1/2 cup of coffee down the front of my dress (which, thankfully, was black). The coffee ran down my stomach and (you guessed it) into my underwear!!!! No number of napkins could rescue me. I was mighty uncomfortable for the rest of the meeting.

When I got back to the office and stopped in the restroom, I had to laugh at the coffee stains I had in some unusual places.

Let's just say I am giving up on the lids from now on. :-)

Back from my bucolic past!


We just got back from a quick trip to Indiana for a graduation party for my cousin's son, Scott. It was a family kind of thing, and on the way over, Greg and I took state route 224 across central Ohio instead of taking the turnpike. We did this partly to avoid the tolls and partly because we needed to go to Markle, Indiana, to visit the cemetery where a good number of my family on my dad's side are buried. As part of the bargain, we drove through a lot of the farming communities where I grew up; and at this time of the year, they were busy getting crops in and making sure tender seedlings were ready to grow.


The theme of the day on this beautiful Saturday morning in early June seemed to be "John Deere Rules." Instead of the SUV's and BMW's of suburbia, the 2-lane road will filled with pickup trucks and farm machinery of every type and size. Besides the tractors on the road, the farm yards were filled with horses and cows and chickens and an amazing number of clotheslines full of blue jeans and overalls and towels. This made me laugh at the memory of drying laundry outside. It is the true test of a person tough enough to live in the country! If you have ever dried off with a towel that is dried outside on the clothesline, you know that it is an invigorating experience. :-)



I really enjoyed driving through the small towns with big churches on the main street and all the stores closed up by 9 o'clock on a Saturday night. I had forgotten that the 24-hour convenience store is pretty useless in a town where you can just go next door and borrow whatever you need after the stores are closed. And the store owners go home to their families and let you worry about your midnight craving for pizza rolls.


Here are a few photos to further explain the nostalgia. First, doesn't everybody want to know that your grandparents are resting under a tree in a cemetery near their parents and the rest of their family?

When you get in your car to go to church or to hop over to the next town to pick up something at the hardware or the Tractor Supply Company, people don't get too upset about waiting a few minutes for a train to pass. Counting and cars and wondering what's in them is entertainment enough, and it isn't inconvenient or stressful because the sun won't go down for hours anyway.

In the country, even the people who don't work on the farm anymore but have jobs where they wear business casual clothes and stay in the air conditioning and worry about the computers that keep track of your medical records can find time to be with the family on a Saturday afternoon.

Congratulations to Scott, our newest high school graduate, who will be headed off to Indiana University in the fall to study history. It was really great to see all the cousins and aunts and uncles and parents and brothers and . . . well, everybody. Even though we don't see you often, you are always and forever our family. And there is still a lot of the country in us---thank goodness!

Until next time . . . .

POISON IVY!!! YIKES!!!

Opa pulled some poison ivy up in Katy and David's yard when we helped with the moving over Memorial Day. By Tuesday when we returned, he has 2 or 3 spots on his hands and arms. Within a few days, this had spread to his stomach and thighs and a couple of other . . . uh . . . sensitive spots! He was very itchy and uncomfortable, and he couldn't figure out where the new patches were coming from.

Late last week, Opa decided that he had it on his shoes and that every day when he put them on and tied them he was spreading it further. Hence, the shoes spent the weekend in the middle of the back yard---in the rain and everything. They were eventually washed off and allowed back in the house.

Well, Opa doesn't seem to have as many new patches of poison ivy this week; however, he is still very itchy in spite of the cream the druggist recommended to help him. (He won't take the Benedril that the druggist also recommended. That's another story.)

How long does poison ivy last? When will this story end? I have never had it before, but I am wondering if this might change if it is all over the sheets and the towels and everywhere.

HELP!!!!