Cheese and Whine!

No, this post isn't a rant - only a little tiny bit of it is -right here at the beginning.

I'm perturbed and I don't know what or who to be perturbed with. Is this my computer, my ISP or blogger playing nasty tricks on me? For the past three days, there are several on my blog favorites list who I have visited and when I went to make a comment, I couldn't get any cooperation. Either the comment block would come up as unavailable, or just blank. Then today, I thought maybe my run of luck had changed as I went to make a comment at Linda's blog (Are We There Yet) and it opened up for me just fine and dandy. I made my post, hit the publish button and it was processing and then poof - gave me a nasty error message indicating this time there was a problem with blogger! Really tightens my jaws when things like that happen.

Then, two days running when I go to read my favorite Alabama friend's blog, which she just recently redesigned, everyone is oohing and aahing over the banner picture she has posted on the top of her blog and I feel terribly neglected because for some reason or other, my computer refuses to open it! Go figure that one, will ya?

Okay, I feel a little better having done that amount of whining here today - getting those gripes off my chest. Now, on to other things.

Today, my son stopped by about 11 a.m. to do a load of laundry and mentioned he was in a hurry - had a lot to get done and then had to get home and rest because he was going to have to leave about midnight tonight to be in Harrisburg by 2:30 a.m. to make a run tomorrow. One of the things he had to do was to go to Clearfield and pick up his check as well as the volkswagon front end he and his boss hauled back, strapped to the back of the tractor, from Arizona. (My son thinks the sun rises and sets on Volkswagons; has a vw bug -1967 I think it is -painted lime green and purple, which everyone in the entire township knows it when they see him coming.)

Anyway, I needed to go to Clearfield too so we decided instead of wasting that much more gas, I would ride over and back with him. He could drop me at Walmart so I could pick up some of the groceries we would need for the month as well as getting three -yes, three -rolls of film developed while I was there too. I always enjoy riding with him because he is really a hoot to do most anything with, plus he's just such a nice sweet young man. No I'm not prejudiced either, just because he's MY FAVORITE SON!

So, I got these three rolls of film developed and now, that left me with a dilemma. Which pictures do I use in my blog tonight to write about?

There were the photos from the "impromptu walk" down in the local ghost town back the end of April there and I had promised to post them here as soon as I got the pics developed. Then there were the visitors from Sweden - yep, some good pictures of them in the mix and I'd also said I'd share those with you too, didn't I? There were some pictures from Mother's Day of me, my son, my daughter, Mandy, the grandkids too and my Mother's Day gift(s) that I thought would be a nice thing to share. Plus, there were also about six or maybe seven photos too from our class reunion this past Saturday evening that you've all heard me talking about here for at least a week or two. Which group should I post here tonight? Hmmmmm. That was a tough decision for me to make but I decided to go with the Mother's Day ones. If for no other reason than to get the embarrassment aspect over and done with. I don't like having my own picture taken - for reason obvious when you see these. But for posterity's sake, here I am, in all my "stuffed sausage" glory!
Here's my "baby" -Mandy, with her two babies, the Princess Maya on the swing and the little Duke Kurtis seated on the ground by the neatest, most comfortable swing ever - my Mother's Day present from Mandy and my son, Clayton.

This was really a very pleasant surprise when the kids came in and asked me to come outside and see what they had just put together for me - for my Mother's Day gift. I really and truly never expected anything of this magnitude from them.


Here's my little Princess Maya, checking out how nice Gram's new swing opens out into a really neat bed - one that moves back and forth, no less. (Also can make you feel a tad dizzy if you do try to lay down on it and it starts to move. I figured I had to add that little tidbit in.)
Here we all are - checking out the new swing - me (Grammy J), Princess Maya, Mandy and Duke Kurtis! You can see by everyone being all smiles just what a big hit this swing is!

And now, if you remember, I had another present for Mother's Day - a ride around the village on the back of a little Honda motorcycle my son and son-in-law recently acquired.
Here I am, trying my best to get my right leg to swing over the bike so I can get settled in then on the seat, behind my son. Unfortunately, my hip joints don't function quite the way they used to do -a little arthritis probably has set in over the years I guess - and as soon as I got my leg about half way up and tried to swing it over, the old hip joint just wanted no parts of that action!
Not one to be easily deterred, wanting a taste of reliving my youth, I had my son-in-law (the one with the hat on backwards -tres cool, ya know -LOL) go in the house and bring out the step stool from the kitchen. Using that, it gave me just enough height where I could bring my right leg over the seat on the bike and actually was able then to sit down without the right hip joint going into a massive cramping spasm!
Ah, sweet success, at last! All settled in for a nice little ride and away we went with Clate beeping the old horn on this bike as we zipped past my friends' homes around town. Bet they were surprised as all get out to see me on the back of this bike but not near as much as I was to be there!

Now, before I finish up for today and give you the Bushism for today, here's a photo, just taken yesterday morning when my son met the newest addition to the family.
This is Nina - the little orange kitten my older daughter "gave" Mandy on Sunday when she went down to pick up the Princess and the Duke and bring them home. I'm adjusting -somewhat - to have her in the house, only slightly better than is Gracie, the lovely black with gold flecks furball we've had here, who has ruled the house for over 15 years now. Gracie is still growling at the kitten, giving her the evil eye too every chance she gets. But for sure, Nina has found a fast friend in my son, Clate, as he loves cats, as does his little sister, Mandy! So, as much as I profess to disliking orange cats and as hard as it is for Mandy's husband to have a short-haired cat around too who will really irritate his allergies, big time, it looks like Bill and I will have to take a back seat and adjust to living with little Nina. Maya and Kurtis both really love watching her and Maya is already having a field day chasing around the house with her too. So long as Nina doesn't develop any nasty habits like biting your hand when you pet her or shredding the screen on the kitchen door - things that the two orange cats we used to have here often did, I'll go with the flow and she can stay. I say that very grudgingly though - remember that!

And now, the Bushism for Wednesday, June 6, 2007.

"We need to apply twenty-first-century information technology to the health care field. We need to have our medical records put on the I.T." - Collinsville, Illinois; January 5, 2005.