First time for everything...

I have always prided myself on never having a broken bone. 45 years in this world and not one crack, not one chip.  I never was the kind of girl who would get a broken bone, though.  No tree climbing for me.  I was all about some baby dolls and tea parties.  I left the tree climbing to my brother and later, my sister.  Never played sports either.  I stayed in the house, close to Mama.

45 years old with my very first broken bone.  That ankle that I twisted at work last month.  It is indeed fractured.  The base doctors had pretty much done all they could do, including taking x-rays that showed nothing.  It is still swollen and still painful to walk on so they referred me to an ortho surgeon and I had an appointment today.  His x-rays showed a break.  A chip in the bone and then behind the chip, the fracture.  He put me in a most attractive boot cast and hooked me up with a bottle of super duper Motrin.  He also gave me a handicapped parking permit to use while I'm waiting for this thing to heal.  

I don't know how that's going to affect my job.  I'm a co-op and in training and can't very well train on an airplane with a broken foot.  Sigh.

Happy Birthday, Mama!

 

When you look at me

a piece of you

I hope you'll see

Happy Birthday to my sweet mama!  

I am who I am because of you.

Standoff at the SC Corral

Tabbie Hoffman's kitty "friend" returned today and it wasn't exactly friendly.  That cat got all the way up to the patio door this time.  And Tabbie stood his ground.  Got all bowed-back and stiff-legged about it, like he was saying, "you want a piece of me??".  Six weeks here and he's already claiming his territory.  This is HIS house.  :)

I was so proud of him but when he asked me if he could just work him over right quick, I told him (in the words of Sheriff Andy Taylor), "Tabbie Hoffman, he'd kill ya."

I ran Mr. Kitty off and I got a water pistol for next time he returns.  I can't have him making my baby all nervous and stuff.

Sick baby

Tabbie Hoffman went to the doc-doc today and got his very first shot.  :(  He is still shaking his head like something's in his ear, in spite of weeks of flushing his ear out with that solution I got from the PetSmart vet for him right after I found him.  His right eye is still goopy every day and last night, he sneezed and had a runny nose.  So I took him to the vet today, Dr. Corker, here in town and he was so great with him!  I can't say enough about how kind and nice he and his staff were to us.  He tested Tab for leukemia and AIDS and then did a thorough exam, looked in his mouth, ears, eyes and up his nose with a light and Tabbie Hoffman just sat there and let him!  I was amazed.  'Cause that boy is waaaaay bitey.  And when they weighed him, Tabbie weighed 4.4 pounds!!  He was just over a pound when I took him to PetSmart almost six weeks ago.  I told you he was waaaaay bitey.  He bites everything!  Shrimps and crabs don't stand a chance in this house.

The doctor diagnosed him with an upper respiratory infection, which is what Aunt Ami suspected all along.  Since he was sneezing last night, I was afraid it was getting worse so we went.  He got an antibiotic shot and a bottle of amoxicillin drops to take twice a day.  We also got a Hill's Science Diet kitten starter kit that has a bag of food, a little measuring cup, two cans of food and a book telling me all his kitty secrets.  $145 later, we came home.  Kitties can be expensive!

Except for when he was posing for pictures this afternoon, he's been sleeping.  I know he feels bad.  But ain't he cute?? 

Company's comin'

I spent the day doing some catch up around the house.  The last two storms we've had left a bunch of downed limbs and branches, the grass hadn't been cut ALL summer, the deck needed some water seal and the patio needed cleaning.  I got all that done AND still had time to paint my toenails and watch Fried Green Tomatoes.  :)

Tabbie Hoffman had a little excitement this afternoon!  He was scratching his nose this morning and then this afternoon, sure enough, he had company!  He saw his first fellow kitty in five weeks.  They didn't know quite what to think of each other. 

As soon as I saw this picture, I ran out there and got that little spot in front of the door that I missed!  So much rain and very little sun back there makes for a moldy, mossy backyard.  I used oxygen bleach, baking soda, the water hose, my broom and a LOT of elbow grease.  The whole patio was moldy just like that one little spot that I missed.  That's where the mat goes.  I think it turned out great!

The Nichols (and me!) take the Whistle Stop Cafe

I met Mike and Brandy at one of my very favorite places today for lunch.  The Whistle Stop Cafe in Juliette.

In all the times I've been to the Whistle Stop, I have NEVER seen it as crowded as it was today.  I got there a little after 11:00 just as a bus pulled up with a bunch of little old ladies and then it just filled up from there.  

And it was hot.  And in trying to snag us a booth before there weren't any more, I picked one on the side where the ceiling fans didn't work.  Yay, me.  I understand them wanting to keep the cafe the way it was when the movie was filmed there but knowing Idgie and Ruth the way I do, I feel pretty sure they wouldn't mind a little central cooling up in there.  Just sayin'.

We had a great time anyway!!  I usually get the Bennett's barbecue sammich (secret's in the sauce!) but today, I got fried chicken with mashed potatoes, fried okra and cornbread.  Oh, and a side of fried green tomatoes, of course.  OF COURSE I DID.

 Hush yo' mouf.

Beautiful little Willow dancing on the porch of the cafe

How darling is this baby boy??  

Roan had the right idea 'cause man, it was HOT.

 

After we ate, we walked around the village and popped into several of the little antique and junk stores there.  I found this adorable sign in one of the junk stores that I HAD to have for my kitchen!! I love it!!  Our favorite store was The Honeycomb, a unique little shop filled with local honey (they're beekeepers, by the way!) and lots of little trinkets.  Oh, and COLD RC Colas!!  I got a bar of lavender, milk and honey soap that smells absolutely divine.  I don't even want to use it.  I'm just gonna let it smell up the place.  :)

Our fun day was over too soon since they had to get back to Atlanta so after we parted, I did something else that I've never done before, in all the times I've been to the Whistle Stop.  I went and explored the church grounds and cemetery of the church from the movie.  In the movie, it's a Baptist church but actually, it's a United Methodist church.  Same difference, right?  The only difference is how wet you get when you get baptized.  :) 

I paid my respects to Buddy and Ruth.  I thought it was so cool that they put the little headstones side by side.

Fried Green Tomatoes is a 21-year-old movie and this little town survives entirely from tourists and fans of that beautiful love story.  Judging by that crowd today, I'd say they're still doing just fine.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

I think Frenchie said it best.

 I hope you have a wonderful day!!  I love you very much!!

Rainy Saturday

Is there anything much better than a lazy rainy Saturday at home?  I'd be hard pressed to come up with something.  I took this picture out my patio door earlier today.  We had a monsoon!! 

So Tabbie Hoffman and I just laid around and napped off and on all day.  I've been nursing a touch of some kind of horror-movie-caliber spasms that you really don't want to know about stomach bug that I think I picked up from a sandwich I got at Subway last night.  I'm not sure but I think the turkey was dropped on the floor or something.  And then stomped on and kicked under the 'fridge.

Awweeee, ain't he so fweet??!!  When he's not all flipped-out-of-his-mind-scratchy-bitey, he is the sweetest, most cuddly little puff ball you could ever want. 

My ankle's doing better but they still have me on light duty through the end of the month because I can't balance well on that side.  You should see me trying to stand on my left foot!  You'd swear I'd been drinking.  And I never touch the stuff.  So for a little longer, I'll go to physical therapy three days a week and do things I can sit down to do.  

It won't be long before I'll be registering for school again.  This year is going by so fast!  We register for spring semester November 7th.  I'm thinking about switching my shift to swing around that same time so that I can get my body accustomed to working from 3:30 to midnight every day.  I've never worked nights before but I am most definitely a night person, do not like early mornings at all, so I think I'll be fine with the change.  I'll be getting my first raise, my first step up, next month.  Time is going by so fast!!

Velva Jean learns to SPY!

There IS a third story for my girl, Velva Jean!!  I'm so excited!  It comes out September 25th and is called Becoming Clementine. 

Summer 1944. Paris. A secret mission. A dangerous passion. A spellbinding story you will never forget.

After delivering a B-17 Flying Fortress to Britain, an American WASP (Women's Airforce Service Pilot), volunteers to copilot a plane carrying special agents to their drop spot over Normandy. Her personal mission: to find her brother, who is missing in action. Their plane is shot down, and only she and five agents survive. Now they are on the run for their lives.

As they head to Paris, the beautiful aviatrix, Velva Jean Hart, becomes Clementine Roux, a daring woman on a mission with her team to capture an operative known only as "Swan." Once settled on Rue de la Néva, Clementine works as a spy with the Resistance and finds herself falling in love with her fellow agent, Émile, a handsome and mysterious Frenchman with secrets of his own. When Clementine ends up in the most brutal prison in Paris, trying to help Émile and the team rescue Swan, she discovers the depths of human cruelty, the triumph of her own spirit, and the bravery of her team, who will stop at nothing to carry out their mission.

I can't wait!!!!!

AND my girl has her own Facebook page!!  Squeeeeeee!!!!

Figgy Jelly

Looky what I made!  Fig preserves!!

Mama and Daddy have a fig tree in their backyard and since I lovelovelove figs, they gave me a big bowl of them.  I decided I'd try to make preserves with them and my first attempt was soupy.  Guess why??  I didn't use pectin.  I thought I'd make it like I make my cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, boil the fruit with some sugar and it would thicken up on its own.  But it didn't.  Mama and Daddy were here Friday afternoon and I showed them my Mason jar of fig soup.  They had just made 20+ jars of fig preserves themselves and they told me I pretty much have to use pectin.

So I got some.  And I reboiled the fruit and sugar soup with about a tablespoon of pectin and look what happened!!  Who'dathunkit??  Mama and Daddy, that's who!

I am SO happy!!  It was SO easy!!!  And cheap!  Especially when you get free fruit!  And it is absolutely delicious.  I may never buy Smuckers again.  :)

Beyond the keep

I am in love with Velva Jean Hart.  This girl.  OH, THIS GIRL. 

I'm reading the sequel to Velva Jean Learns To Drive (I blogged about it here).  Part two of her story is called Velva Jean Learns To Fly and I'm having a really hard time putting this book down!!

All Velva Jean wanted all her life growing up in the mountains of North Carolina in the 1930's was to sing at the Grand Ole Opry.  She inherits an old yellow truck, teaches herself to drive it and change the oil and stuff like that, then she sets out on her own, leaving her husband behind (who she eventually divorces in a quickie Mexican divorce, making herself "beyond the keep".  I love that analogy!), headed for her new wonderful life in Nashville.

You know what they say about plans, right??  I don't really know how she ends up 'cause I'm still in the middle of the book but once World War II good and kicks off, she's signed up to be a woman pilot, a WASP, a Women Airforce Service Pilot.

This girl is amazing.  You almost believe she is real.  The relationships she has with the people whose paths she crosses are true and genuine.  In fact, my favorite person whose path she crossed is a handsome, young cadet bugler named Ty, who absolutely broke my heart.  I haven't cried while reading a book in a long time.  I'm not going to say any more in case you want to read it, just know that he is something pretty special.

I've been reading books at work, exclusively at work, but this one I'll finish this weekend, I'm sure.  I literally cannot wait to see what happens next!  Since I'm learning to work on F-15s at work, I'm really interested in the flying part of it.  Not that I'd EVER want to pilot a plane.  Just sayin'. 

These books are funny, heartwarming and such a joy to read.  I really hope there's a part three to Velva Jean.  I don't want to let her go.  I know there's something else she can learn to do!!