Ten Thoughts Tuesday ...

1) The lawn mower shortage has been fixed. Mom found a great sale on lawn mowers and just couldn't pass it up. Yeah!! First lawn mower we've had in two years when ours was stolen from our backyard! No more borrowing lawn mowers or having the lawn guy come out. Yippee!

2) Married Son was here when she delivered it so he could take it out of her van and put it together. He had to take off for a while but came back after dinner, but Son decided the grass didn't need to be mowed for a few more days, LOL. So we burned the sticks and branches that fell from recent storms instead. We sat outside until after midnight, just talking and burning the debris. We only got about half the pile burned. He'll be back again tonight to finish the job, lol. I just love the smell of burning wood.

3) The barrel didn't stay blue for long, LOL! Funny story about that barrel. He had just picked it up from this guy he knows through recycling. Alien went with Son to pick it up. Ends up that the Barrel Dude is married to a gal that used to live two doors down. We lost contact when she moved after she divorced her first husband. Alien and the former neighbor's daughter recognized each other immediately. I've been invited to their house, see if we can rekindle the friendship "J" and I lost when she moved away.

4) And another long lost friend has contacted me recently, too. I hadn't seen "D" since graduation way back in '78! She found me through classmates.com. She won't be at the reunion, but I promised her I'd take plenty of photos!

5) Speaking of photos, lol. Looks like I *am* going to the Village Fireworks after all. There's no plans for Dad's birthday on the 4th, so Single Son made a last minute request to have Alien and me added to the VIP list. Chief personally added us to the list. Yeah!! But I had to promise to make my now famous pasta salad for the Chief's picnic. It's easy enough to make - shhhhhhhh it's criminal how easy this recipe is!! It's just three boxes of Suddenly Salad Pasta (Ranch and Bacon *or* Italian flavor), a large jar of salad olives (drained), can of black olives (drained and sliced - black olives are optional) and grated pepperoni. Cook pasta salad according to box. Add olives and grated pepperoni. Cover. Chill for at least 12 hours. I told you it was easy, LOL. And soooooo delish!

6) Still haven't found a digital converter box for under $60 around here. There's a serious shortage. I had hoped to find one for $50, but because of the shortage I've had to raise the limit on what I'll pay for one. Still, I can't find one for $60 even. The cheapest I've found is $100 and that's out of my budget even with the coupons!

7) LOL ... Alien has been on and off the cell phone all afternoon with her new found long lost best friend. She's walking up to the Custard Shop on the corner so they can hang out for the rest of the day. Haven't seen each other in half a dozen years but they sure don't seem to have missed a beat since yesterday's reunion.

8) I guess it really is reunion month, LOL. Alien ran into an old friend of mine the other day, more of a love interest really. He was telling her how he'd love to see me again. Hmmmm ... it's tempting. Especially when one considers that this is the man that set the bar that no other man has since been able to measure up to. I dunno ... it's tempting. Very tempting. LOL.

9) Last night Married Son and I were reminiscing about stupid stunts my children have done in their lifetimes. My personal favorite was when he and his brother were playing with the BB pistol in the house. Married Son had put a raw egg on a small side table and was told he better move it because of the framed picture behind it. Single Son didn't want to miss and possibly break the glass. Sooooooo ... dipshit Married Son puts it on the kitchen table for Single Son to shoot it. No one had thought that there was a sliding glass door directly behind the kitchen table. Yup, you guess it. Married Son missed the egg, and shattered the non-sliding part of the sliding door! From upstairs I heard the "oh shit" and then the sound of crackling glass. As I dashed down the stairs the glass was still in the process of splitting into a million pieces before it finally fell. I will never let them forget that stunt. Ever. And what brought on the reminiscing? The burn barrel pictured above. Just as I was coming outside to watch the fire I saw a huge fireball flashing from the barrel. Seems *someone* put gasoline in the barrel as a fire accelerant. Yup, it worked. Just fine. Singed the hair on his arm he did. Geesh.

10) Needless to say whenever one of my sons says "hey watch this" or "I have an idea" I make a mad dash for my digital camera. Never know if I'll have something worthy of submitting to Funny Home Videos - or as evidence should I need to make an insurance claim.