Sunday, September 29, 2013

A Bit of This and That

For my birthday Mac took me out dancing to a little club with a nice dance floor, others were there celebrating a birthday too and ready to dance.  Unfortunately the band wasn't in a dance music mood, they started a half hour late and played nothing but the blues, their version of the blues. Had it been the Blues Brother's version of the blues it would have been fun, but no they played the funeral dirge versions.   I knew some of the songs they played only because I recognized the name, I certainly didn't recognize the music.  Every song sounded just like the one before it, boring, boring, boring.  We danced twice in nearly 2 hours, the other lady celebrating a birthday danced once.  Not a very successful night, except that Mac and I share the same sense of the ridiculous and can laugh at the same thing and we spent the night making silly jokes about the band.  We finally left and went out to breakfast, which was delicious.
My dress came in from Anthropologie, in a much darker teal than what was pictured on their website.  It didn't fit, but instead of being too small it was miles too big, instead of being worn dancing it spent the weekend in the U. S. Mail being returned.
My kitchen can openers have all been a disaster lately, the electric ones quit on me and the hand operated ones get so stiff they need a lumber jack to operate them.  So while shopping at Target last week I went looking for a new one.  The only electric one they had was one I'd already had and hated, the other option was a little battery operated one.  The man working in the appliance section said he had one and that I'd like it.  So we bought it, took it home, studied the instructions and attempted to use it.  Mac has finally gotten it to work, some  of the time, I'm yet to get it to cooperate which means he'll be doing all the can openings or I'll have to get another opener, boo hiss.
Lovely autumn weekend here, plan on some yard work tomorrow.  Mac has dug me a new bed for roses and though it's a great location he discovered that the pipes for our sprinkler system run through it and we'll have to grow the roses in containers.   I've decided that I  want a bunch of apricot colored roses.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Things I'd Like to Do, But I'm Making No Promises

A Large Slice Please
 Relyn at Come Sit By My Fire has posted a list of 43 things she'd like  to do before her next birthday (this is her 43rd) and it's a great list.  As my birthday is tomorrow I thought I might come up with a list too, but not something for each year, I'm way too old and it would take more than a year to complete.  So I'll keep it simple and Mac will be helping me with some of them.

In the next year I want to:

•  Raft down the Grand Canyon, not white water, just a boat ride.

•  Visit the beaches of Normandy

•  Actually sew a dress well enough for it to be worn--I  use to make a lot of my own clothes, but I got out of the habit and now I don't sew as well

•  Get some work down on my family scapbook--this has been lingering forever, I'm beginning to feel   guilty

•  Take more pictures of our family--I take lots of pictures of places

•  Finish the crocheted throw I've been working on for months

•  Plant more roses

•  Finally master playing Pacibel's Canon in D

•  Ride on a steam train

•  On open garden day visit some of the gardens in Savannah

•  Tell my family how much I love them. can't say it enough

•  Paint more pictures, I get so lazy about this

•  Make the quilt that I've had cut out for 9 months

•  Read more nonfiction

•  Take more day trips, we've gotten very lazy

•  Listen to Mac play his guitar, he plays so well and too often I just listen with one ear

•  All aches and pains aside, enjoy how healthy I am

•  Get outside more, heat and all

•  Each day to remember how lucky I am to have the life I  have


Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Autumn

According to the calendar the autumnal equinox was Sunday around 4:44 pm, and Sunday and Monday certainly felt like it.  Overcast skies, a drizzly rain, cooler temperatures,  a few falling leaves, it was nice.
But not today, oh no, not today.  It's as if whoever is in charge of the weather said, autumn, too boring, let's do summer again.  It's hot, it's humid, I'm sweating which means I'm grouchy. POOH!
I'm ready for autumn.  My table is decorated, my crock pot is out, I've dug out my cool weather recipes, the pool is closed, my swimming suit is put away----I don't need any more summer.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Morning Person/Night Person

No contest, I'm a night person.  I've always known it, dragging myself out of bed to go to school as a child, going to work long before I even wanted to be up as an adult, dealing with  a morning person husband (thank God I've converted him),  getting up with a night person daughter when she had to be up in the morning (I'd hide out in the kitchen while she ate breakfast), yes I'm a night person.
When I was a child my Mom use to say she actually felt guilty getting me up for school in the morning because she could see how hard it was for me to wake up.
As an adult when I became a teacher I use to wish there was such a thing as night Kindergarten it was so hard to be bright and chipper in the morning.
And it has no connection to when I went to bed, didn't matter that I'd had 8 hours or more of sleep, I still had trouble getting up in the morning.
As an adult I discovered that the later I stayed up the better I felt and the more awake I became.
Retirement has been wonderful, except when we actually have to go somewhere early in the morning we don't use a clock.  Sleeping till 9 am or later is the norm, staying up pass midnight is also the norm.  I love it!
So what brings on this semi-rant?  I had to be at my retina specialist this morning at 9 am and his office is on the far side of Savannah which meant we had to be up by 7am and out the door by 8:15.  The drive was awful, my eyes were aching, allergies have them so swollen they look like little piggy eyes and I had to do a peripheral vision test.  It didn't go well.  I'm sure that if I could have done the same test at 9 pm the results would have been better.
I don't like mornings.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Dress Hunting

Last week my daughter went dress shopping and found it very discouraging, I know the feeling.  I realized that I don't even own a dress, so I decided to break down and buy one.  Now the gene for shopping missed me.   I like shopping online because I can shop all over the place.  I can't stand trying on clothes, I'd rather order something, find out it doesn't fit, and mail it back.
I shop a  lot at Macy's, know my size there in everything, but found nothing I liked.  It seemed like every store had the same old thing.
Love the store ModCloth, they specialize in retro looking clothes, so I found 2 dresses and ordered them, they were so cute, but way too small.  So back they went (free returns).


 Then I found a dress at Anthropologie, way too expensive, I hesitated, I debated, I quibbled, finally I ordered it.
I decided that if I was going to own only one dress it ought to be something I really like, something I don't see everyone and her sister wearing and one that would look half way decent on my short, round body.
Plus it's my birthday next week, so it's a birthday present.  Hope it fits.


These are the 2 from ModCloth, so cute, so small






This is the one from Anthropologie

Friday, September 20, 2013

When Fur Meets Armor

Do you call that a formation!  Shape up!  I didn't get all these stripes by being nice!

Monday, September 16, 2013

The Best Laid Plans . . .

Step One, Isn't it a Mess!
The plan was, with was being the operative word, to pull up the carpet on the stairs, sand them down and restain them.  So bright and early Sunday morning Mac ripped up the carpet on the first step  and what did he find?
Another fine piece of handiwork by Joe Romano the man who built this house!  There wasn't a complete wooden step, there were two good sides and an improperly cut piece of wood that didn't even fit, the edges didn't match.
Quickly Mac ripped up the next stair, it was ok so he went on to the third.  It wasn't as bad as the first stair, but it too had a piece of wood inserted between the two sides.
So no sanding and staining was going to fix this mess.  We went to plan B, sand down the stairs and put carpet stair treads in a pattern we liked.  Soon we realized that this wouldn't disguise that hideous first step.
On to plan C, put carpet, in a nice pattern, all the way down.  We've sent photos to our carpet guy and now we're waiting to hear from him.
This isn't the first time we've found shoddy work by Joe Romano and I'm sure it won't be the last.
Step 3, Bad, But Not as Bad as 1







Saturday, September 14, 2013

New Carpet

The plan this week was to head into town and get some estimates on new carpet for our stairs (YEAH!), landing and the 2 bedrooms upstairs, but as we headed out on our morning walk Monday we saw that our neighbor across the street was having new carpet put in so we stopped to talk with her. She highly recommended the company doing her carpets, said she'd gotten a lot of estimates and theirs was the best, so we asked them to come and give us an estimate.
Well the estimate was more than fair, but after some pondering (I'd been kicking this idea around for awhile) we decided not to carpet the stairs again.  Instead we'll rip out the existing carpet, sand down the stairs and stain them all the way across.  Currently they only have stain on the sides where there's no carpet.  I'm pleased with this idea, no more vacuuming stairs, no more cleaning carpet on my hands and knees.
The price quoted to us included moving the furniture, tearing out the out carpet and hauling it away.  But in order to speed things along we carried all the smaller stuff out of the rooms, this included a ton of books.  Boy what a hot, sweaty job.
So we had to be up by 7 this morning, I know this doesn't sound early to many of you, but since retiring,  9 is a lot closer to getting up time than 7 is .  The work is supposed to take 2 days, but I'm hoping with us moving a lot of the stuff out they'll be done sooner.
By golly, they got it done in about 6 hours and it looks great.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Overnight Bag

When Delta sent us off to the Hilton the other night they gave each of us a overnight bag.  It had a white tee shirt to sleep in, a tooth brush, teeny, tiny tooth paste, deodorant, brush, a razor and cotton swabs.  Mac was a hoot with the tooth brush, he just stood there holding it against his teeth, he is too use to an electric tooth brush.

Thursday, September 12, 2013



Well bless you Delta.  When we cancelled our trip because they had cancelled our flight and rebooked us on an alternative we weren't happy with we assumed we wouldn't get the full cost of our ticket back because we'd flown the Savannah-Atlanta-Atlanta-Savannah segments of the flight.  But we were wrong, we were refunded the full cost of our tickets.  So I'm feeling a little bit less unhappy with Delta.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Anniversary

Yesterday was our 48th wedding anniversary and that just seems incredible to me.  Most people say we don't look old enough to have been married that long and I laugh and say we got married in middle school.
Though we didn't marry quite that young we were both teenagers.  I feel so lucky that I've spent my life with him, he still makes me happy, makes me smile, makes me laugh, makes me tingle.  The trip to Spain was our present to each other, but that's ok, he's always my favorite present and I'd like to have 48 more years with him, but I'd like the next years to slow down a little.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

My Favorite Time of Year

Football and baseball, who could ask for anything more.  Well I could ask for my football team (Raiders) to actually act like a professional football team, but that's a minor quibble.  Right now I'm watching the Atlanta Falcons play the New Orleans Saints, two teams I enjoy and during the commercial breaks I'm watching the Atlanta Braves baseball team play the Philadelphia Phillies.
The next game is even better, the Green Bay Packers vs the San Francisco Forty-Niners and we'll round the evening off with the Washington Redskins vs the Philadelphia Eagles.  Whoops, make that the New York Giants at the Dallas Cowboys, even better.
A great weekend.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

She's Back

Yes she's back!  Delta contacted us last night and let us know she had arrived from Spain (hope she enjoyed the trip).  We knew she was on her way because the Iberia baggage web site had let us know that she had been routed back to Savannah from Madrid.
They called around 6:30 last night and said she'd be delivered some time during the evening, and about 8:30 p.m. there she was, sitting on our doorstep waiting to be signed for.
Didn't even open it till this morning, but except for being very wrinkled, everything looked great.
I have my Gloria Vanderbilt pants and my Opium perfume, I'm set to go.
My thanks to Delta and Iberia for handling it so well.
I'm not too angry at Delta for the cancelled flight, it's the first time in many years of flying that this has happened so I'm ok with what happened, not happy, but ok.
Right now Mac is online booking our next flight, San Francisco here we come.  All I need to do is get a bigger carryon bag and then we won't have to check anything!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Missing

Still missing, if found  please return.  Another talk with Delta today and they admitted that until we file the formal lost bag claim, which we can't do until tomorrow, they really can't talk to Iberia.  Iberia has been informed that it is missing and their "delayed" baggage page admits this, but that's it.
Yesterday I made out a list of everything that I could remember was in it.
We have been told that we are getting a refund on our tickets, minus the expense of flying us to Atlanta and back, but that takes a while too.
And in spite of this can you believe we're actually planning another trip?

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

We Should Be in Spain

Yes, we should be in Spain, in Segovia to be exact, where we'd rented a condo for 10 days.  But we're not there, we're at home.  We left home Monday morning and flew to Atlanta, the first leg of our trip, checked that the plane was already at the gate and went to have some lunch.  An hour before our flight we went to our gate, found that our plane had been delayed about a half an hour.  A half hour later they told the people at the gate that they'd had to find an alternative pilot (no idea what happened to the original pilot) and as soon as he got there we could begin boarding.
Eventually he got there and we began boarding, drinks were passed out, dinner items selected and a bit late we rolled away from the gate.  Then we stopped, nothing new there, getting off the ground in Atlanta always takes forever.  But then the pilot came on the intercom and said there was a problem, an auxillary fuel indicator light had come on and a circuit breaker had popped, so we had to return to the gate and wait for a maintenance  crew.  More drinks were passed out, lots of laughter and talking.
Then after an hour or so the pilot informed us that the maintenance crew said they'd have to do some testing and the passengers would have to deplane, we could leave our stuff there, but we had to go.
So back into the gate area, they told us we could get $10 vouchers down at the Delta desk, but not to go too far as they would want to reboard us quickly as soon as they fixed the problem.
Took forever to get a voucher, bought us a couple hamburgers and milkshakes and sat down to wait.
The time for departure kept changing, from 8:30 to 9:30 to 11:00 to 12:00 and finally 1:00 am.  They kept telling us they'd fix it or find another aircraft which ever was quicker.
Then at 1:00 am they cancelled our flight, told us to go back on the plane, pick up our stuff and go to the Delta desk to get rebooked.  Now we were flying 1st class so our line was much shorter, only 4 or 5 people in front of us (there were around 270 people on our flight) and it still took us more than an hour to get rebooked, and we, and very obviously, everyone else was unhappy in the rebooking.  We were given a 10:30 am flight on Delta to Chicago where we'd have a 5 and a half hour layover and then board an Iberia flight  and fly  another 8 1/2 hours  to Madrid arriving a day late.  Some other people had to fly to Boston to connect with a Madrid flight, others to London or Amsterdam, others would have to wait until Thursday to get a flight.  One family had their teenage kids booked on one flight and them on another. Some people holding 1st class tickets would have to travel Tourist on the rebooked flight.  It was a mess.
They gave us vouchers for the Hilton, were waved off in the general direction of ground transportation and finally found the Hilton bus.  It was past 2:30 am before we got to out room, realized that in a very few hours we'd have to be up and start the odyssey all over.  We were exhausted, looked at each other and said, "Let's go home.".  So Mac called Delta back, told them we wanted to go home and not to Spain, so they rebooked us, they said that in order to fly 1st class we had to wait till after 1pm,  or we could fly cattle call at 11 am, we booked for 11 and we tried to calm down and get some sleep.
The night before when we'd rebooked they'd given us a voucher for the hotel and $100 in vouchers for food etc.  When we checked in the next morning they gave us $200 more dollars in vouchers.  Now, normally when given vouchers we'd have a meal and let the rest of the value go, not this time, I took my vouchers and hit a bookstore and spent them, Mac took his to Brookstone and spent his, we used some more to buy our daughter a present.  Finally it was flight time.
We arrived in Savannah around 12:30, but one of our bags, mine, had gone on to Chicago.  As of today Delta doesn't know where my bag is, though we'd filed a report they hadn't contacted Iberia airline, so when I called today they did send a request to Iberia to look for the bag.  I asked what happens if they can't find the bag and the lady said that after 5 days I could file a claim, and I said well it's already been 1 day so that means 4  more days to wait.
8 Hours Before the Pooh Hit the Fan


I sat here this morning and tried to remember what was in the bag and did a pretty good job, I'm sure I'll never see the bag again and for the most part I'm not too upset, except my favorite pair of Gloria Vanderbilt capris were in there.
First time in all our years of flying we've had problems like this, hope it's the last.

                               GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS Anyone who blogged with Janet knew she was a huge livelong fan of ...