Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Beta? You Betcha

I'm not sure I like Beta stuff. A spyware program I use has gone to beta and I can't make heads or tails out of it. Glad I kept the older version. And yahoo messenger... it's beta and I can't keep it logged on for some stupid reason.

So what's the big deal about Beta? Does anyone know or do you really care!

That's what I thought.

William on ....

being right or wrong.

Saturday, William was playing one of the PS2 football games that my brother has. He wanted me to watch and so I did for a while. The defense blocked a pass by the quarterback and I said, "William, that pass was blocked."

He said, "HUH?"

I said, "When the quarterback throws a pass and the defense stops it. It's called a block."

"No. It's a flag."

"Most of the time, a flag is thrown down. But it's really a block."

"No...a flag, Sheerie."

and so the arguement went on... until he said, "I'm trying to correct you and you're trying to incorrect me."

Well, what can I say... sheer brilliance. I realized then that William's gonna have his own form of secret language.

End of July

Today is my sister's birthday. Happy B-day, Sis!(I wrote this like she reads here..lol) Oh well...

We had a birthday dinner for her last night. Home-made spaghetti with meatball sauce. Was very yummy. And cake, though I didn't care for all the frosting. Makes the cake too sweet.

Granny has been visiting since last Friday. She's going home this Saturday. I miss the old Granny. The one who talked and talked...the one who got jokes and made them. I miss hearing about the old days and the stories of her youth..and even though I've heard them a zillion times, I still want to hear them over and over. Now, she's just a shell of herself. She walks around in a daze, as if trying to remember her purpose. My heart cries. Alzheimer's is so terrible.

Dad goes in for his heart catherization tomorrow. I'm taking the day off to go with him, since my sister or my aunt can't. He thought he could work afterwards. I put my foot down and told him that if he doesn't rest at home, I would quit my job because I don't want to see him bleed to death. So he's going to go home like a good dad and rest. He may think he's fooling everyone, but I know that if he could come to work afterwards, it wouldn't be for work...it would be to get sympathy. He sure likes his with gatorade.

I sound so disgruntled. I'm not...just stressed and that's what a blog's for...venting about anything.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

"All that you love will be carried away"

When I first saw the above as a title to a story in Stephen King's Short story book called "Everything's Eventual." I didn't read it... not until last night and I've had the book for a few years.

I figured it was about love gone bad and didn't really want to read it, because I had a thirst for blood and read some of the other obvious bloody stories.

But last night, I flipped through the book and it landed on the story... page 69!

And I was surprised by it..the title is actually a piece of graffiti that the salesman in the story, Alfie Zimmerman has been collecting from reststops and rest rooms across the US for 7 years. And as the story unfolds, we find that he's got cancer and is going to kill himself. But the notebook of graffiti keeps distracting him...

I won't say anymore but it's a great story...one of his low-key ones that are often overlooked, like the novel "The Girl who loved Tom Gordon."

But there's some great graffiti in the book. Like:

"My mother made me a whore."

And written underneath is in a different penmanship :

"If I supply the yard will she make me one too?"

Priceless!

In the short story, Alfie has been longing to put his collection in a book and wondered is people would buy it.


I would, Alfie. I would.

Speaking of Poetry

A while back James O'Barr asked me to contribute some poems for a book he's putting together of his art. I said I would and for him to let me know when I needed to send them. He hadn't written since then and I figured he had changed his mind, until I talked to Sam a few weeks ago. Sam said James did some art for his chapbooks for San Diago Comic-con. And during their correspondence, James mentioned me 'Fairy Sherrie' and that he was waiting on some poems from mefor a book he's putting together.

Did I promptly send some. No..not until today. If he doesn't use them I'll probably post them at my sip of Sherrie blog.

Dum Dum Dummy head...me

I had forgotten the new google ID for my sip of Sherrie blog ...

but luckily some wonderful person tried to hack into it
and blogger sent me the password and Id.

Thank you wonderful hacker...because I never thought to ask for my password.

So it will be up and running again...mainly to post my poetry.


If I ever write again...

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Like the Lumberyard guy says...

...black armbands for me and my friends.

Martha, my friend who worked at the bakery for years... my friend who had a son that was murdered a few summers ago...my friend who's gone through much and still kept a smiling face has died. She was only 54.

A diabetic ....whose kidneys shut down suddenly over the weekend and never regained consciousness has died.

I've written about her and her husband Jerry. I've written about the murder at the convenient store...

I feel sad and full of regret because I haven't seen her since April. And I should have at least called to say hi.

God bless her family. I don't know how Jerry will survive without her guiding hand...my heart bleeds for his loss.

So many minutes

...so little time!

Well, I don't know where to start.

My Mom is doing great. She's past the danger of the blood clot in her leg moving and is back at work. Though she is favoring her leg a bit. I told her that it would take some time for it to be like 'before' and not to rush into 'big projects' where she's on her feet for long extended time periods. We'll see if she listens to me.

My brother is home from Georgia. He had a great visit and was happy to be back. I didn't tell him I crashed the PC, which is fixed btw. No.. I didn't have to tell him because, the nephews did. Those tattle tells!

I visited my old college roomie last Wednes. She and most of her extended family were vacationing at Long Beach, NC. We had a nice visit. I hadn't seen her in 5 years and her kids are adorable. They had a total of 21 adults and 19 kids, all under 12. Guess who I spent a lot of time with...that's right...the kids. I must be a kid magnet. But it was fun and I hope to see her in a few years. On the way home, as I drove through Green Swamp (Half expecting Big Foot to jump out at me), I thought about how she and I were like sisters. Always thinking we would be as close as sister ...even closer. But now, we aren't. We talked about the past and caught up on average things, like work and family. But after awhile we searched for things to talk about. The conversation wasn't as fluid as it was during our Greenville days. I miss that. After I left, I realized just how much and I was sad for the rest of the drive.

But one can't expect life to stay the same. Life goes on. Places and faces change and we adjust to this, even if we never think we will.

Poor Al is getting over a very bad case of poison sumac. I told William about it and he said, "He needs adult supervision when he's outside. And he should look at plants and make sure they aren't posionous. Because in nature, some plants are. Even I know that!"

Needless to say, I lost it when he said that. A big speech for him.

I saw the Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix movie. Not that bad. I give it a B minus. They had to cut a lot of it. I realize that and it's too bad. But since Movie 3, I've come to expect it and am able to separate myself from the love I have for the books and am able to enjoy the movies for what they are. Abridged versions.

Now.. I am reading the last book and find myself mourning. I haven't looked at the last page, so I don't know what will happen yet. But I think Harry will live--but I think he'll have to die to live because his scar is a Horcrux. I've figured that much out... how else could the big V die, yet live.... and also I think Snape is good. Too many signs point in the other direction but I wonder if others have caught on how Snape swipes at James Potter whenever he is angry with Harry and never once mentions Lily? I think because he really cared for her... even if he called her a mudblood when they were young and at Hogwarts.

I just hope that they don't kill off Dobby. He's one of my favorites. I wish they had used him more in the movies. But I bet they will. J K Rowlings will sacrifice some of the 'minor' characters. I would if I were writing this story. And it would be at a cost for my main characters... after all this is pure evil they are dealing with.


Man, how I went on about that...see what happens when you let your fingers do the walking??

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Suggestive Food




Last night William and I watched Funniest Pets and People a rip-off of America's Funniest Video show. I had a segment that had a guy showing off a tomato which looked like a penis and nugget sacks (the words on the screen said "Suggestive Food".

William turned to me and asked, "Sheerie (he calls me Sheer-ie, not Sher-rie), are Suggestive Foods good for you?"

I had no answer to that.

Monkey Sea... Monkey Do




My sister bought Ben a sea monkey kit. She told him I was the sea monkey queen and would help him with it. We're still trying to name them all.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

The Pope says...

Other Christian Churches "are wounded?" Not true churches?

Oh God... please don't tell my fire-breathing Southern Baptist Granny! She'll try to jump in the Popemobile and set him straight.

Theme Sundays

I had a decent weekend, especially since Mom's on the mend. We had a horrific rain storm Saturday as I drove to Fayetteville up I-95. Traffic drove at a crawl and I prayed all the way. The DOT has been working on the road and the shoulder was non-existent, so I couldn't pull over. When I got to Al's I almost kissed the ground.

I didn't cook Saturday night. Al had some left-overs and ate them. I made a spinach salad and ate that. We sat and talked about different things and waited for the Power Ball number to be called. We won a ticket. I had a good feeling about two numbers and surprising they were two of the numbers they picked... 21 and 27.

Sunday I slept in. I got up at 11 am and Al picked on me for being a sleepy head. He had already ate breakfast, so I made a sandwich and ate some kiwi. He left and did a few errands while I got a shower and made plans for dinner later. When he got back, he wanted lunch and since I had just ate, he made a sandwich.

While I watched him make it, I suggested things that would make our Sundays more interesting ...like doing a theme. I said, "You know, we could make Sunday's more interesting...like doing a theme. Say... next Sunday we'll wear hats. And the Sunday after that, we'll only say words that begin with a P."

He laughed. Al's still sporting his beard, which gave me an idea... "Hey and the Sunday after that we can have Beard Day...braid our beards and put jewels and stuff on them."

He scratched his beard and said, "You don't have a beard."

"Have you ever heard of a clam beard?"

"Yes, it's that fuzzy thing on clams and mussels that you have to clean off when you cook them."

"No, it's a 'hairy' lucy."

He actually stopped putting mayo on his sandwich and stared at me. "A Lucy?"

"You know...my... er... kitty cat...er.. female pleasure zone."

He fell over laughing. "Pleasure zone."

"Yes, well when it's hairy... I mean really hairy, I call it a bearded clam."

"That's totally scary. I'll never eat clams again. Nor look at a female pleasure zone for fear it will grab me. You've ruined it for me, Shere Bears."

"Don't know why..." I said, "Your clam digger is perfectly safe."


We were quiet for a while, until it dawned on me..."Hey, we better make Bearded Sunday sometime in September. Because it will take it take long for my beard to grow."

Al doesn't know it yet, but this Sunday's theme is going to be 'whipped cream.'

Bee on Flower Ku



Flower blossom...
bee caressing petals
of summer

Friday, July 06, 2007

oh...

and I forgot to say this....

my cell phone is web ready, meaning I can check my email on yahoo, etc. So if you are on my friends list and see me visible (Because those who IM with me know I am ALMOST always invisible) after 5 pm and on the weeknds. That means I'm on my cell phone and if you send an IM that doesn't mean I'll get it right away. So please don't get pissed off if I don't reply. Send an email. I'll get it quicker...

The 6th of ...today

I never realized how much I really used my PC at home until I couldn't. Nothing has worked on fixing the winlogon.exe... so now I have to buy a new product key code and reinstall XP. Sucks eggs but that's life. And what did Shere learned? She learned not to touch things she shouldn't without proper supervision.

Dad got Mom an appointment to see his doctor Monday. And the doctor promptly sent her to the hospital where she stayed until yesterday afternoon. She did have a deep venous thrombosis aka a blood clot and was given shots for a few days and then released. She has to give herself shots for a few more days and take the meds they gave her. After she recuperates, the doctor is going to do some tests to find out why she keeps having blood clots. I'm so thankful for Dad's influence. I had called that morning..trying to get her in but there were no appointments until Friday and I was so afraid the blood clot would move. She's at my house and doing a lot better. I think she's going to go to her boyfriend's house over the weekend. If not, Lisa and the boys will be there most of the time.

As for Dad...he got what he has wanted for the last two years.... blockage. As I've written before, Dad's been trying to get the doctors to tell him he needs a catherization (aka Stints) for the last two years and three different doctors could not find any blockage. Their advise was to stop smoking, stop stressing, diet properly and exercise, which he hasn't done... and this time, they did find blockage. He goes for a sonogram next Wedn and then at the end of the month, they'll do a catherization. I pray that this time, Dad will listen to the doctors and try to take better care of himself.

Al's finally over his diverticulitis. We had a great 4th. Went to his cousin's house for a BBQ. They had some great food. That morning Al and I had a long lingering exotic moment and I swear it stayed with me all day. I was walking around on clouds. When it got too hot outside, we went in and sat around talking and eating Watermelon. I was seated on the couch with the teens and Al sat at an angle from me by the fireplace. I couldn't stop looking at him and grinning. When he caught me, he would grin widely and we would sort of laugh. I'm sure everyone wondered what was going on. When we got home that night and after I called and checked on Mom, we turned in for the night and neither of us said anything. We wrapped ourselves around each other and fell asleep.

Sometimes my heart spills over when I look at him... how can I possibly love this man as much as I do?

Monday, July 02, 2007

The Nephews Goofing Off

Granny and the Boys on Mother's Day

I'm a big Dum Dum Dummy Head

I sure hope July is a hellova lot better than June. If it isn't, I'm running away to join the circus or maybe become a gropie of a rock n roll band...I mean groupie.

Here's the list of bad things that happened since my last blog:
1) Granny was in the hospital for a few days with a blood clot in each lung. She's home now and doing ok...weak and drained but living.

2) The CPU fan on the PC at home burned out. (Had to replace it--total cost wasn't too bad.. just $72.03.

3) Mom has been struggling with Thrombophlebitis for over 2 weeks now. She's not getting better and I can't find a doctor that accepts new patients. She went to the local Urgent Care and I swear those dingalings should be put out of business. Dad's over at his doctor's office now, trying to get her an appointment.

4) Al's Diverticulitis flaired up all last week. He was find Sat and it struck again yesterday. Today's he's still not feeling all that great.

5)Like a big dum dum dummy head, I was messing with a spyware program I have that checks your whole system...and looking in the processs section I saw "winlogon.exe" and remembered it as a virus I had on my PC awhile back and deleted it. Only to find out that there is a legit process with the same name and now my PC at home keeps rebooting and won't even reboot in safe mode. Which sucks...but what sucks worse is that I can't find the system recovery CD to repair it with. So I'm gonna try to use the CD from this computer (my work pc) and see if it will let me repair it. I asked a question about it in yahoo answers and was told I could do it. If not, I guess I'll have to take it back to the shop.


I think I'll stop there for now. Enough whining.