Some Tuesday Thoughts ...

The heat of summer is definitely here. I wish it'd go away. Really. I'm swearing that I need to find a nice summer home somewhere cool, like in the Arctic. Ya'll can be snowbirds, heading south to escape the cold of a Michigan winter ... I'm built the opposite, give me the cold! And it's "only" 82 degrees today. I just can't wait to see what the hot months will do (besides melt me).

My status over on facebook read "I. Hate. Heat." My dear cuz really blasted me saying "weren't you just whining about how you couldn't wait for summer". Um, NOT me, dear Cuz. Not me.

Even the cats are hating this heat. The two little ones are laying in front of the floor fan, literally hogging MY breeze. How dare they? At least it's too hot for them to be running around. Oh wait, they saved that for last night while I was trying to sleep.

So, let's see what's been going on in my life lately. Hmmmm, not a darned thing. Life would be totally mundane if it weren't for the occasional drama the kids send my way.

Single Son has taken it upon himself to keep me jumping (literally). He loves to sneak up behind me and yell ... doesn't matter what, just a "hi" even ... just so I will jump out of my skin. Claims he's helping to strengthen my heart. Didn't know my heart needed the exercise (at least not that kind of cardio workout). However, you know if I were to sneak up behind him and scare the wit outta him, he'd not take kindly to it.

Married Son's semi broke down just the other side of the Canadian border. He had to make arrangements for his load to be picked up, then needed a tow back across the border to the repair shop. I'd hate to have seen that tow bill! But he doesn't own the truck, so it's not his bill. LOL. Last I heard he'll be a week off the road whilst they fix the truck. He's stewing because no work, no pay. He really needs to get away from the owner of his semi and buy his own ... this guy lacks so many skills as a boss (and human, but that's another story).

Funny thing happened when Married Son was at a truck stop in Canada before his truck broke down. He was talking with another driver. How he found out the man has the same last name as I do is beyond me, but he did. They started talking and it appears this trucker and I could be related (which makes him related to Married Son, lol). Son and I spent literally hours texting back and forth comparing info between this guy and what I know about the family while they dined on truck stop cuisine (yum). So, email addresses exchanged, it will be fun to fill in some of the many blanks this branch of my family tree has. Provided we can prove he is related and not just a coincidence we have so many common names in our trees.

The only time I hear from Alien is when she needs something. Last week it was gas money and cereal for the baby. I know I said I would not help them out financially at all ... but if my grandson needs food, then dammit, I'm gonna get him food. So, instead of giving her cash that I know that loser she's with would only spend on cigarettes and pop, I told her to meet me at the store. I did put a few dollars of gas into her car, but only enough to get her home and to her doctors appointment the next day. Then we went into the store where I bought baby cereal. Like I said, no way I'm giving her cash with that loser around. This way I knew it went to baby cereal for my Butterball.

Oh yeah, remember all the stink from a few years ago ... Bubba taking me to court for custody, the whole Alien running away ordeal and all the tears shed by me for Bubba's demanding she move in with him? Well ... he moved out of his own house because he can't stand that loser she's with. My question is why he let the jerk move in in the first place. Not my house, not my problem. So Bubba recently moved in with his girlfriend. I wonder how long she'll take his crap? LOL! Not my worry. But at the same time, now Bubba refuses to give them money, pay the bills for his house (they've been without gas for about three months, electric will be shut off any day now), but won't develop the pair needed to remove the loser from his home. The funny part is loser is in violation of his probation, he never reported a change of address with his parole officer. Alien did however call me about a month ago asking me if they could move in with me after she had a fight with her father. She said he was trying to break up her family, but of course Bubba never followed through with his threats. I said no way in hell. She thought the grass was greener on that side of the fence. Now she's seeing everything up close that I fought so hard to prevent. Oy. Talk about drama, eh? At least Alien's now 18 and I am no longer forced to deal with Bubba. And you know I pray the day comes when that loser is gone too.

Not much else going on. My life is rather dull ... it would be perfectly dull had I not had children to entertain me in my old age (okay, middle age). The only *excitement* is that my hand still is bothering me. I cannot use the pinkie and ring finger on my right hand. I can't feel them, the fingers curl under like a bad case of arthritis. At least there's no pain involved. I can't even open a simple package of ramen noodle seasoning (Single Son came to my rescue). Typing is a challenge, but we see I've obviously overcome the challenges of typing with an injured *paw*. I know I really should see a doctor, but being I'm once again without insurance I can't see a doctor in my future anytime soon. The free and low income clinics around all pretty much have a year waiting list - and that's if you're already a patient, new patients have up to a two year waiting list - they will not take into consideration any pre-existing conditions like my gimpy hand or the fact I'm a diabetic. My *good* neighbor works in a free/low income clinic and is trying her darnedest to get me in. Wish us luck.

On that, go rest your eyes. I'm gonna go rest my hand.

Chung's Restaurant

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Restaurants
Cuisine:	Chinese
Location:	4187 Highland Road, Waterford, MI 48328

A great place for Chinese, Szechuan, Cantonese, and Japanese food. This is a family run business that's been around since 1940 (the last 12 years in their present Waterford location). They take great pride in their restaurant and it shows.

Home of the famous Chung's Egg Rolls. Definitely the best egg roll I've ever had!

The food is always delicious, and served in generous portions. The staff is friendly, the service is excellent.

I highly recommend Chung's to anyone in the area.

http://www.chungsrestaurant.net/index.htm

Last blog entry on college.

So, college days are officially over for me, for now anyway. I need time off. Still not sure if I'll end up going to the University to get that Bachelor's degree or not. That's a decision I won't contemplate for at least a year. Like I said, I need time off to rest the ol' brain.

Commencements were at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Nice place - if you're in the stands. The back hallways where we had to get in alphabetic order were nice, LOL, but the standing for over an hour on concrete floors in dress shoes really played hell on my feet and legs (four days later I'm still feeling it). I'm glad I wore flats, all those women in high heels had to have really been feeling it worse than me! But once we finally got moving things went smoothly.

The only two professors that I saw there that I knew and had classes with just happened to be my favorite and my worst profs. And of course, the worst prof was all friendly ... shoulder bumping me every time he passed me in the crowded hallway. I so felt like saying "look, I didn't like you when I was in your class. What makes you think I want to be all buddy buddy now? Jerk". But I didn't' say it. I did however, position myself between two students so that he couldn't shoulder bump me further. What a moron. And Coach was there - my fave prof. I've blogged about her in the past, the stress management prof. Great lady. The things I learned in her class will definitely be with me for the rest of my life. Unlike the Jerky Prof, I can't say I even remember much more than his bad teaching (certainly not what the lessons were).

So ... the ceremony was nice. A little long, but what ceremony isn't a bit on the longish side? The keynote speaker especially. Half an hour (so I'm told by Single Son) of whatever it was he was saying. He did "bird hop" a lot - what my family calls when someone jumps quickly from one subject to another, then back to a prior topic again. It made it hard for me to try to keep up with his speech.

I did notice there was a huge percentage of women graduating. Much more than men. I'd love to see the stats on exactly what the ratio was. I'd also love to know the attendance figures. The Palace was absolutely packed!

Single Son and DIL were both there with their cameras. Single Son had his hands full with Dad in his wheelchair, and Mom and Aunt Silly both walking with canes. So he wasn't really able to get many photos during the ceremony. And the handicapped seating was so far up in "nosebleed city" that they were literally in the shadows. Thankfully DIL had a little better seating and was able to photograph the ceremony for me. She has yet to send them to me, but I will post as soon as I receive them. Single Son was able to get photos after the ceremony at least. Which is good, I really wanted photos with my folks and favorite aunt.

Me, Mom, Aunt Silly and Dad

Graduation 2010

Me, Mom, Aunt Silly and Dad.

OCC Graduation Ceremony at Palace of Auburn Hills. More photos to follow soon.

Butterball's Birthday

Start:

Dec 3, '12

Wednesday ...

Couldn't find a catchy name for Wednesday's blog entry. Oh well ... it's hump day. Four days and the commencements will be a thing of the past.

It doesn't look like Dad will be strong enough to attend. Which means Mom stays at home, too. Dad needs help to do anything anymore, from getting out of bed, up from a chair or walking across the room. Even sitting in his wheel chair at his computer poses a falling risk for him. He needs constant supervision. There's no way I want him to put himself at the risk of falling by being at commencements. And the sit, two and a half hours ... he can't sit that long anymore. He and Mom are the sole reasons why I'm even going to commencements. I'm still going, since the kids are all attending. I'll just have to purchase the DVD of the ceremony for Dad and Mom. Thank heaven for digital recordings!! I tell ya!

Mother's Day went good, minus the argument I had with Married Son about getting the lawn mowed. But, it got done. Just not by him. He hired his brother in law to do it. The kid does a good job, puts a lot of effort and attention into it. Lawn looks great. I'm thinking of having him do the work from here on out (he doesn't charge much for my tiny lot) ... but one of my sons will have to pay him - as the lawn is their responsibility!

So ... Married Son and DIL got me a cute book, "Aging With Attitude". Funny Maxine-type illustrations, lots of age attitude in those pages. Single Son had to pull a prank on me again. Him and his pranks! He had taken my car in for an oil change last week. It ended up costing him $250! Of course, that included some other repairs that needed to be done. So ... on Mother's Day he hands me this really sweet card and tells me that the oil change was my gift. I can deal with that. Really. Monday he says we're going out for a while. Our first stop we went to Best Buy where he bought me the upgrade for Windows 7. Yay!! I hate Vista with a passion. We spent Monday evening upgrading my laptop. We also stopped at the sporting goods store and looked around at some stuff he wanted to price. Then we had chinese for dinner.

The one thing I hate about upgrading the operating system is all the work needed to transfer files and to personalize it, to really make it yours. I'm still working on that two days later. LOL. K, I'm slow, what can I say?

But there's lots of distractions here. Facebook ... and email ... and stopping to get the mail, and ... well, all those mundane things that one has to do (like facebook is a must do - right?).

So ... a huge distraction today has been the mailman. He brought a package from Penguin Girl. She sent me a book called "Squirrels of the West" and a graduation card with ... what else ... penguins on it!! And Starbucks inside (no, she didn't pour coffee in the card, she added a gift card). I've been thumbing through the "field guide" ever since!! I'm taking my book and grabbing a carry out from Starbucks. I see squirrel watching in my future!! Hell, I may be making an appearance at a tree near you!

Saturday Stuff

Don't pass out from the shock. I know ... a few posts this month already. What gives with that? LOL. I told ya I wanted to get back to blogging. Well, looks like it may have finally happened.

Today is Grandson's 5th birthday. My how time flies!!

We hung out yesterday. I asked him what he wanted for his birthday. He points to his Army t-shirt and says "Anything A.R.M.Y. Gramma". And spelled Army! I asked him what one Army thing he wanted the most. "Cargo Pants, Gramma. Camouflaged Army Cargo Pants". Slowly he said it so I could let each word sink in.

Of course, Gramma ran up to the Army Surplus Store today and bought him those cargo pants.

I can't wait until his party. He's gonna be sooo excited.

He doesn't want toys. He wants Army supplies. I was tempted to get him a mess kit, too. But Married Son (who was with me at the surplus store) said absolutely not! The kid would never want to eat off regular dishes again. I'm gonna go back later and buy one. Give it to Grandson when they move back in.

Gramma's house. Gramma can give the kid an authentic mess kit to eat from.

Grammas can do that, you know. Hehehe ....

Not sure when they're moving in exactly. Yes, it will happen. Just a matter of DIL coming over and cleaning her crap out of what used to be Alien's bedroom - turned storage room. My house, my room, their crap is stored in it.

At least it'll get cleaned out, and will be transformed into a little boy's room. No, I am not camouflaging the walls!! Okay, maybe I'll remove the doll border that's up there now, but I'm not painting over the power blue walls with white sponge paint (I like that room the way it's painted). He'll just have to pretend the walls are *sky* and deal with it.

Even Grammas have their limits. Painting a room for short term occupants is mine.

That'll be my office and craft room when they finally move out.

If they don't chase me away first. Or ... my *landlord* decides to sell as the talk has been lately. But that talk has been on and off for over a decade now. So ... who knows. Funny thing is, I am ready to move! I don't know if it's more because I want a smaller place that's really not kid friendly (you know what I mean) or if it's because in the last half a decade this neighborhood has gone to hell in a hand-basket. Or both.

Ah well, no need to solve all my *problems* today.