Dogs

The husband and I have been married almost 30 years. We have owned a dog our entire married life. We currently are the owners of Tessie, a 10 year old chocolate lab, and Mason, a 6 year old yellow lab/german shepard mix we inherited from our goddaughter. In all these years of dog ownership, husband has been "top dog" at our house and has been truly a good dog owner. He cleans up after them if mistakes are made(I didn't say he LIKED it but he will do it) and so do I. Even the kids have cleaned up accidents. So, when I came home and found a note that Mason had had an accident in the living room. , thought not much of it and went and saw that it looked clean and went on about my business. When husband came back he casually mentioned that I might want to check the living room because he had used dishwasher detergent to clean the accident.
Me"WHAT??? Why on earth would you use that? We have never used that. What about all the other products we have?"
Husband "Well, I thought it wouldn't make so many suds." Suds???from Natures miracle? Is he crazy??????
Me " So how did that work out for you?"
Husband, "Ok except I think it had some bleach in it since my hands are smelling of bleach."
Me,"SIGH."
I'll be able to tell when it dries whether we will be getting a new carpet or not.
Bleach........in dishwasher detergent....who would've thought. One more thing you learn the hard way!

How can you be too loud in a bowling alley??

To those of you that know me, you know I am a bowler. I know, I know....if someone would have said I would not only own my own shoes but own MY OWN BAll 5 years ago I would have laughed them off the face of the earth!!! But there you have it, I am a bowler and I LOVE bowling..
Sometimes I am really good and sometimes I am really not. Mostly I do it because it is fun-but I have also gone from bowling 98 to an average of 162--which makes it more fun let me tell you. I have yet to bowl a 600 (599 is the closest I've gotten and close only counts in horsehoes and hand grenades) but I love trying. I have even gotten the husband to join a couples league every other Sunday night.
While I look forward to every other Sunday in anticipation of throwing that perfect game.....husband is spending as much time dreading it. I think it is because it is the only game,sport, activity that I am actually better than he is. (He has a 130 average...mostly because he doesn't care as much as I do.) The truth of the matter is , the more you bowl the better you get. I used to bowl in 3 leagues and he only bowled in one so that proves MY theory (I now only bowl in 2....I had to fit work into my days!!!)
I bowl to have fun not to win money and it's a good thing since I am not THAT good..
I have a huge problem with the bowlers who are oh so serious and need their individual space don't get me wrong....I am a rule follower from way back. I KNOW the rules and I follow them -I also expect YOU to follow them but we can have a lot of fun doing it.So, while I am bowling and having fun, I really hate to be told that I am being too loud.
Now I ask you.....HOW CAN YOU BE TOO LOUD IN A BOWLING ALLEY???........have you BEEN in a bowling alley?????? it is not the library(where I do work during the day so yes I DO know how to be quiet.....it is my job to make sure EVERYONE is quiet where I work(and if you know me , you KNOW how hard that is for me.....)
I can assure you, being told to quiet down in the bowling alley is not how you want to meet me. It's not a tournament, we're not bowling for millions, there are no Cameras rolling, we're not at the opera or the symphony ( and quiet is a requiremnt at those places) so shut your trap and throw your darn ball and don't make me come over there and give you a lesson in bowling etiquette ..
And, yes I bowled well tonight......200, 170, 163
SIGH......still not a 600 and I don't care HOW loud I was.
So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Snow

So I have spent the better part of an afternoon trying to figure out
1) how to add links to my sidebar(futile effort....had to get the 22 year old to do this with his eyes rolling into the back of his head) and
2) how to add pictures to a blog(not as futile but said 22 year old has left for the less annoying environment of his mother to downtown Chicago....after a 7" snow storm(......makes me soooooo happy) and I have been somewhat successful with the pictures...but not really....

We had a heck of snow fall here yesterday.....very beautiful but a pain to snow blow or shovel--and you can just forget about driving in it. 7" in 5 hours....what fun ! and the city we live in does not see the need to start the plows until AFTER the snow stops. If I did not have a 4 wheel drive I would still be sitting in the front of the subdivision waiting for the plow!!!

On the other hand, the dogs (Mason and Tessie) love the snow.....They have been out making snow dogs!! The snow is higher than they are but they don't seem to mind. Tessie's 10 year old hips will complain tomorrow!
But that is what it is like to get old now isn't it??

Dog in the snow......

If you look really closely, you can see Tessie in the snow near the neighbors blue van toward the front....she is trying to figure out how to get home!!!

7" snow on the deck

Ok....so we weren't real quick about getting our lawn furniture in from the summer time....but it makes it easier to see how much snow was falling yesterday! The dogs(Mason and Tessie) being that they are labs .....love the snow but this is a bit much for Tessie and her 10 year old hips!!! Pretty to look at and a B----to snow shovel. Heart attack snow was the name of the game.....even the snow blower was over worked.

sub cell phone

Ok.....so I've finally named my blog...."Let me blunt" will not surprise those that know me and you don't have to know me well to know that I am a pretty blunt person...



I am the substitute coordinator for the high school I work at. Teachers call in sick and I get a sub for them. Now, I LOVE this job. It is right up my alley so to speak... how could you not love a job where you get to tell people what to do? I work really hard at keeping my subs happy because I want my subs to sub for me when I need them...

Having said that....when I took this job over from the person who used to do it, there was a lot I didn't know. It didn't seem that hard for the teachers to call the cell phone I have for JUST THAT PURPOSE!!!
There are magnets with the phone number on it and the number should be in the teachers possesion somewhere. When a teacher is home and needs to call in sick, I assume the cell phone number is on the fridge....no problem ,.... call ME. A problem occurs when teachers are running late for school and their room/students need to be covered and they don't have the cell phone number with them(because they can't bring the fridge with them with the magnet now can they?).

After a few mornings of a few different teachers calling in late and NOT CALLING THE SUB CELL PHONE which I have on me at all times...I sent an email that, perhaps on reflection , might have been a bit blunt( of course it wouldn't have anything to do with the statement"...and now--- LET ME BLUNT ---or anything in the email I sent everyone would it?????) Short and sweet..... I typed the number and told them to print it out and put it in their wallet, purse, glove compartment...anywhere so it would be available when they needed it.
Really, it shouldn't have been that hard to figure that out. I mean , these people have been to COLLEGE!!!

Need I say that I have no trouble with the teachers calling in now?

I just needed to be blunt .....

Christmas tree in auto accident

We had a real tree this year for christmas. This is not an unusual thing but I was pushing for the fake kind since it isn't as messy. After much discussion with my husband of 30 years(real or fake) I capitulated and went and got the real tree....mostly because we were having 14 for Christmas dinner and maybe it would smell nice.....not that the turkey or the pies or anything I was cooking would overpower the pine in the tree or anything......

So, after bowling on the Tues before Christmas.....I went and got a real tree from a lot not too far away from the bowling alley.. It was negative 3 and I was not that happy that I was out doing this alone so I pulled up, parked the suburban, got out and went and asked the gentleman and the better word here would have been redneck....was he still selling trees....As there was a virtual FOREST of christmas trees surrounding me.. no surprise when he said yes. Since it was dark, cold, late and I really didn't care, I said I wanted a frasier fir at least my size(and for those of you who don't know me, I am almost 6 ft tall), put it in that surburban, how much do I owe you and thank you very much. (Well, it WAS negative 3 and you wouldn't hang around checking out all the frasier firs on the lot either!) Got home, left it in the suburban, got up the next morning and put it in the garage and left to go and finish christmas shopping.
About 7 that night I get a phone call from my 22 year old son who wanted to know when we had gotten a christmas tree and why no one had told him that we had one.
Now, the unusual part of that sentence is that my 22 year old CALLED ME WITHOUT BEING ASKED so I was little surprised. When I asked why did he want to know, his answer was and I quote "because someone left it in the garage and I ran over it when I pulled in" .
Long story short......he had to run back over the tree to get the tree...which had fallen down and was out of his line of vision..out and when we went to put it up later that night...imagine how thrilled my husband was to have to cut 2 feet off of a 6 ft, $60 frasier fir.

Just so you know, the hole wasn't really visible unless you sat next to it on the couch and really, don't all trees look beautiful once you get the ornaments and lights on???
The tree in the auto accident was almost the highlight of christmas but the real highlight was when I turned on the oven, on Christmas morning, to cook a 21 lb turkey for the 14 people coming for dinner and my oven broke RIGHT THAT MINUTE.....but that can be a whole nuther blog don't you think?