Our First REAL Fall Day

I knew when I walked outside this morning and my hair didn't immediately collapse into a fit of hot messedness, today was gonna be a beautiful day! And it was!! Humidity that was like some crazy talk 50% and only 78 degrees all day. I LOVED it!!

It had me thinking 'bout pumpkins, putting a blanket on the bed and buying too many Snickers bars on purpose for Halloween.

Under The Weather

So, this week. Atlanta's been under the weather and I have, too. I've been home sick with the flu for the past couple of days and I've been glued to CNN watching their coverage of that nasty flood water covering our beautiful capital city. Sometimes you just gotta laugh to keep from crying. I swiped this spoof picture from Ami's Facebook today.  I thought it was hilarious!  Kanye West is such an idiot.  I love that somebody made fun of him this way.  :)

I've had the flu or something very much like the flu.  Since I've been exposed almost daily for weeks to the H1N1 flu, I'm going with that.  The seasonal flu hasn't kicked in yet.  I haven't been getting enough sleep lately thanks to my newfound friend, Baby Minnie Paws, and my immune system is weak.  It was just a matter of time before it got me, too.  I started coming down with it Sunday and today, I'm almost my old self again.  I was able to get Tamiflu early and I just want to say that stuff is da bomb!  I know I wouldn't feel this good this soon without it.  The only difference in what I have and flues I've had in the past is this one brings along horrible pain in your bones and joints and really bad nausea. We've been having loads of fun!  The other issues I've had this time, fever, headache, extreme tiredness and that infernal dry coughing, are all regular flu stuff.

I'm going back to work tomorrow. No fever for 24 hours! I figured if Six Flags could open Saturday (OMG! Did y'all SEE that??) after being drowned by 20 feet of water, life could get back to normal for me, too.

Cracker Salad. Really?

I am a true blue, grits eatin', sweet tea drinkin', yes ma'am saying country girl. In fact, Larry tells everybody that I'm so country, our wedding cake was cornbread (which is a bald-faced lie because our wedding cake was my mama's pound cake!)!! Country and southern aside, I ain't never heard of no Cracker Salad until this morning. We were at work and one of the nurses was talking about making some for a cookout tonight. I was like, "do what?" and she went on to tell me how to make it. Saltine crackers, tomatoes, green onions and Dukes mayonnaise. She said she makes huge bowls of it for parties and it all gets gone.

Well, I just had to make some! And this is what it looked like!! It was actually pretty dang good.

This is the recipe I used. I found it on Paula Deen's website. You know Paula Deen done made some Cracker Salad. She fries collard greens and bakes whole hams in biscuit dough so I knew she'd know what to do.

• 1 sleeve saltine crackers
• 1 large tomato, finely chopped
• 3 green onions, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
• 1 hard boiled egg, finely chopped
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

In a medium size bowl, coarsely crush the crackers with your hands - you should have big cracker pieces. Add the remaining ingredients, mix well, and serve immediately. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

I'm In The Weeds

I saw "I'm in the weeds" today on something online and I thought it was so funny!  Waitresses say it when they're covered up in work. Since I've never been a waitress, I didn't know that.  I have, however, been covered up in work so I think that justifies me stealing it for my very own.

The last three days of this week have been weedy ones. We've been really busy at work with sick chill'un.  Flu season has taken on a whole new meaning for me this year.  In my other life, I didn't give it a second thought.  (Except for year before last when I had it!) It's in my life and up my nose every single day now.

Wednesday night, I met some girls from work and we saw the new Sandra Bullock movie, 

"All About Steve". It's gotten some pretty bad reviews but I liked it. I laughed all the way through it and, oh my goodness gracious, who wouldn't want to spend an hour and a half looking at Bradley Cooper??

Um, yeah.  I'm not the one.

So then, last night, we had CPR training at the office after work. After some scrumptious grub from Steak Out (which later I will thank the sweet Lord Jesus wasn't steak or hamburger or anything HEAVY), we started our class. It was only supposed to last a couple of hours but ended up being closer to three. These are the exact mannequins we used. They come to you looking half dead and singing Christmas carols. Bet you didn't know that, did you? We watched some videos and then practiced on the dummies.  Y'all. I don't know if you've ever taken CPR before but it is HARD.  You have to give 30 chest compressions and two breaths, 30 compressions and two breaths, over and over and freakin' over 'til somebody gets there to take YOU to the hospital.  I got so tired after just a minute of it and felt lightheaded and nauseous. This is where we're thanking the sweet Lord Jesus that I had a salad for supper. After we'd mastered the big dude, it was time to do the baby dude.  He gets 30 compressions with your two fingers and of course, the brat has to have the two breaths, too.  Well, I was so give out after the big dude, I could only do three sets on the baby dude and I was done.  I thought I was going to DIE.  So I picked him up and danced him on the chair and said, "I'm all better now!" He really was. He told me. He was JUST FINE.  Our instructor looked at me like I'd lost my mind but I passed so I guess that was okay. Reckon I'll be getting my certificate in the mail directly.  I may be certified now but I sure feel sorry for anybody who needs CPR and I'm the only one around. Y'all, please don't choke or have a heart attack or drown around me, okay?  I don't think I could take it.  

I don't think YOU could.  :) 

The Light Goes Out This Week

After 72 years, Guiding Light is going off the air Friday and I am sad. Sad that a TV show is ending? Yes. I'm sad because I have literally been watching that show all of my life. Ever since I was a baby, it has been a part of my family. I watched it with my mama and my Maw all of my childhood and teenage years religiously, never missing a day of it during my summers out of school and I cannot even begin to tell you how happy I was when VCRs were invented!! I taped that show every day!!

Since it's been around so long, Guiding Light was the stepping stone for a lot of actors. Some I didn't even realize until I did a little research. Christopher Walken, Billy Dee Williams, Cicely Tyson, James Earl Jones and Calista Flockhart all got their starts on GL. The biggest star that I watched rise to the top is Kevin Bacon. He played Tim Werner in the early 80's and to me, that's when GL was at its best. Maybe because I was young and impressionable (ha!) but the storylines were so great back then.

GL had so many super couples. My all-time favorite is Josh and Reva and if they let that show end without getting them back together for the umpteenth time, I'm gonna quit watching it!! :)

I'm watching this week and seeing it to the end. They are tying up a lot of loose ends and I'm glad about that. I cannot stand to be left hanging! It's sad. It feels like a member of my family is dying.

What's even sadder about this is the reasoning behind the cancellation. Money. Women don't sit home and watch soap operas anymore. Most women these days work outside the home and ratings for daytime TV have plummeted. I think the rest of them will follow suit. Instead of canceling them, they should move them to prime time and get rid of some of those stupid reality shows. That's just my opinion. Didn't they ask me for it? :)

Maw got all of us saying "story" when we talk about the soaps. We don't say "soaps" in my family, we say "stories". "Don't call me between 12:30 and 4:00 'cause I'm watchin' my stories!"

I'm sure gonna miss that story.

**Update**  Friday 09/18/09 I LOVED the ending!!  Josh and Reva back together and hopefully gettin' it right this time!!

Patrick Swayze 1952-2009

Even though we expected it, the sting was still there.  

What a phenomenal entertainer he was!  Actor, dancer, singer, eye candy, you name it, Patrick was it. His movies were such a huge part of my life.  I guess I first fell for him as Orry Main in North and South. Man, was he purty in his Confederate uniform!  Dirty Dancing is my favorite but Ghost isn't too far behind.  I also love Road House, Red Dawn and who could ever forget him in drag in Julie Newmar?  He was hilarious!!

Patrick fought the bravest of fights, never giving in to his cancer but fighting it with everything he had, keeping his faith, his humor and his great attitude.

Thank you, Patrick, for Johnny, for Sam, for Dalton, for Jed, for Vida and for SO many others. You will be missed!!

Look at him right heah. 

Mercy.

THE Final Destination

I guess they called this one THE Final Destination 'cause there won't be a sequel??  You think??  The first four Final Destination movies were awesome.  I loved every one of them, the roller coaster one being my favorite.  I'm weird like that.  I love good old gory movies!!

I saw this one yesterday afternoon.  THE Final Destination. In 3D, which meant I had to wear THE most attractive glasses to watch it. Good thing it was dark in there.  I'm not a big fan of 3D movies. I don't like all that stuff coming at me like that.  3D movies have gotten really good in the past few years.  So good that internal organs flying out and into your face makes you a little queasy.  Okay, a lot queasy.

It was good, though.  The best part to me was the security guard, George, played by Mykelti Williamson.  Bubba!!!  It was great to see him again.  I love me some Forrest Gump.  Y'all know that.  

If you've ever seen a Final Destination movie, you know the gist. Somebody cheats death and Death gets pretty pissed about it.  The ways those folks get killed...wow.  This one does not disappoint. Weird, freaky stuff.  

Just the way I like it!

I Do This Every Year...

...but this is the first year I've had a blog to talk about it!! I'm talking 9/11 conspiracy here so if you don't want to read, hear or think about it, you're welcome to leave.  I still love ya!

I have never thought that we were told the whole truth about that horrible day. I've been watching National Geographic's 9/11: Science and Conspiracies tonight (I LOVE conspiracy theories!!) and what really bothers me is the possibility that 9/11 was an inside job.  A very well-orchestrated inside job.  It could have been. There are so many holes in the story!  You can research them for yourself. 

I hope this little speech Rumsfeld gave in December of 2004 to some of our troops was a slip of the tongue, albeit a forked tongue.  He clearly states that Flight 93 was shot down in Pennsylvania.  Wait a minute. Didn't Flight 93 crash?  Didn't the folks on that plane band together and take that plane down themselves?  "Let's roll!", right?  At least that's what we were told.  That story of Todd Beamer was the most heartwarming thing to come out of September 11, 2001.  We were so proud of him!!  And then three years later, Rumsfeld says Todd's plane was shot down.  What I LOVE about this video is the reaction of the two people behind him.  Somebody said something and they both looked that way!  They probably said, "Do what?"  Ha!  Now I realize this is all five years old but I thought it deserved some blog space. A shot-down plane would explain why debris was scattered over four miles and how it crashed nose first and caused a dang CRATER.

I don't know how far I'm willing to take this.  The National Geographic special I watched tonight was pretty out there, even for me.  The show blatantly came right on out and said that rogue planes could have replaced all four planes and that ALL of the victims on those planes that day could have been flown to the same location and put on Flight 93 and then flown over Pennsylvania and shot down.  Whoa.  That's heavy.  

It's no secret that I'm no fan of the government but even I'm not so radical to know that IF that is the way it happened, thousands of innocent Americans dying for the simple sake of going to war, those responsible (Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld) will not get away with it.  

**Update**  Also.  A missile (not a plane) hit the Pentagon.  Thanks, Shari!

Where Were You?

Today is the eighth anniversary of the most cowardly terrorist attacks on our country, a day we refer to as 9/11. I remember wondering that day if "September 11th" or "9/11" would ever sound normal to me like December 7th does, the day President Roosevelt said was a day that would "live in infamy". Well, yeah, September 11th sounds like that to me now, only with one major difference.

I was alive for this one.

The morning of September 11, 2001 started like any other Tuesday morning. I went to work in Macon, probably five minutes late as was my habit. Ha! I was working for Citi then, of course. I always worked for Citi! I sat down at my desk and got busy doing whatever it was that I did back then. Just before 9:00, we heard on the radio that a plane had hit the World Trade Center but we didn't think much of it. It was probably some little private plane flying too low. We just hoped no one was killed. A little after 9:00, the guy on the radio said another plane had hit the other tower. Okay, well, now that was no accident. My boss, David, turned on our little color TV and worked with the rabbit ears until he got NBC to come in pretty clearly and we tuned in to find out what in the world was going on. We could not believe what we saw. NBC just turned the cameras on and let us watch. Katie and Matt didn't talk much. I remember sitting there in absolute horror when I realized those poor, pitiful souls were jumping out of those buildings. Jumping out of those buildings because it was so unbearably hot where they were. So hot that they thought falling to their deaths was a better fate. That will haunt me to my last day. I remember sitting there in absolute disbelief watching the towers fall in real time. Watching those towers FALL. Those magnificent, enormous buildings where so much work and fun and lives took place collapsed like they were made of matchsticks. It felt more like a movie to me. No way could this be happening to us, not the United States of America. I realize now how arrogant that was. Oh, yes, it could be happening to us, the great United States of America. It DID happen.

I remember asking David "why?" and "what did we do to deserve this?" and "WHO could have done this?" I asked him if he thought it was Saddam Hussein and he said his best guess was Osama bin Laden. Osama who?? I had not even heard the man's name until right then. He had never stepped over into my little world until that morning.

We watched TV at work for three days. We couldn't NOT watch. We watched with hope and prayed for survivors to be found and were crushed when there were none. I remember going to give blood and being turned away because it wasn't needed. I remember how our country came together and crime went down. Everybody loved everybody and we all went to give blood and volunteer to look for survivors and take food to the folks working at Ground Zero. We were at our best during those first days and weeks following September 11th. We flew our flags and wore our pins and by God, we were proud to be Americans!

That sure didn't last. We're back to hating each other and bickering over every little thing. I learned a lot from September 11th. I learned that our lives can turn on a dime and to tell the people I love that I love them, every chance I get. I learned that the world hates us because of the way we are and live. I'd never even entertained that idea before. I wasn't very politically aware back then but I sure am now. I wanted to know WHY this happened. I won't let some monster sneak his way into my little world ever again.

This may sound crazy but this is my blog and I can say what I want. :) When I pray about September 11th, I don't pray for a stronger military to keep us safe. I pray for my big old beautiful country to be safe through peace, understanding and compassion.

Hey, it could happen. Look who I'm praying to.

It Doesn't Take Much To Make Me Cry...

...I am usually a complete washout.  So it really goes without saying that I watch a couple of these movies and I'm pretty much done for the day.  I was a little late getting on the Love Comes Softly wagon (ha!) a couple of years ago but I sure have made up for that. I'm in absolute love with these movies! I watch them every chance I get.  I got a few of them for Christmas last year.  The Hallmark Channel showed all of them today and I recorded them all to watch when I have the time to sit down and really enjoy them. They are so great!! There are eight of them now, Love Comes Softly, Love's Enduring Promise, Love's Long Journey, Love's Abiding Joy, Love's Unending Legacy, Love's Unfolding Dream, Love Takes Wing and Love Finds A Home.

They are the sweetest stories.  The movies are based on books by Janette Oke and they all center around one Christian family, beginning in the 1800's. My favorite one is the first one, Love Comes Softly.  That Clark Davis is the gentlest, kindest, most soft-spoken Godly man!!  You just want to hug his neck!!  He's a real cutie pie, too.  In fact, ALL of the guys in these movies are.  The stories have everything--drama, faith, tragedy and hardship and some of the strongest love you will ever encounter. They're good family movies (no cussin' and no sex) but they're good to just watch by yourself. Just make sure you wash your mascara off first.

'Night 'Night Little Birdy

Wook how cute he is!!  

I went out tonight to water the plants on my porch and when I turned the porch light on, I saw this little bird just perched in that tiny little space where the siding meets.  There is hardly any room right there!  I was amazed that he was even there. He had his little head tucked down until I started making noise with the water bucket and I just had to get his picture.  

Awwww weeeee!!

Hey, September, How's Your Mama And Them?

When the wooden leaf artsy thing goes on the front door, I have officially welcomed fall.  It's a little early but I am so over summer. I'm ready for some cool, crisp mornings, pots of homemade vegetable soup and good hair days!  Summer wore me slap out.  I won't even miss the fresh veggies I snagged at farmer's markets here and there because my freezer is full of them.  "So long, Summer" and "Howdy, Fall, come on in, kick your shoes off and sit a spell."

It was actually cooler here today.  The bank clock said 78 degrees at noon so I got all excited thinking about getting my pumpkin stuff down from the attic.  

(That big silver thing in the middle of my door is a panoramic peephole that Larry got years ago. He's always buying things to keep me safe. Awwww.  You can see clean out to the street through that peephole and it's clear as a bell.)