Russ and Gail love to Golf Myrtle Beach. We have been neighbors for about ten years now, and every February they disappear for the entire month to take advantage of one of the many Myrtle Beach Golf Packages that they have found that allows them to play their favorite golf courses. While they are off enjoying their Myrtle Beach Golf Vacations they have my wife go and water their plants a couple of times each week, and we bring their dog and cat over to our house to pet sit for them.
We don’t mind pet-sitting, their dog is a very affectionate Irish Wolfhound with a great personality, and their cat is, well, their cat is a cat! But at least the cat doesn’t scratch up the place or spray the walls, and doesn’t keep us awake crying all night long, so that is good! Russ and Gail send us a postcard from Myrtle Beach, and they always bring back some nice souvenirs, too!
A good friend of mine has gone to The Netherlands for the summer. He took along a “Magic Jack” which he said he could use to make phone calls from his computer for free. Well, he just called me from his apartment, and the connection was very static-y and he kept cutting in and out. I was quite surprised that the reception was so poor! I just went onto the Magic Jack website to see what their claims are regarding phone call clarity, and it seems as if they are only claiming to give good reception in the US and Canada. So I guess getting any kind of reception in from The Netherlands is pretty good!
Do you even know what Jellycat is? I didn’t, until my daughter told me that Jellycat is the queen of a fictitious country. Apparently all of the subjects in the country are animals. Well, my daughter wants to collect the jellycat stuffed animals that she found for sale on loulouscorner.com.
So, I suggested to my wife that she check out this website and see about ordering one for my daughter’s birthday, which is coming up soon. She told me that the website is essentially a specialty shop for gifts like designer baby clothes and eco-friendly barefoot dreams clothing. The eco-friendly part interested me quite a bit so I went online to see what they had. I was interested in the magnolia tree seedling that they sell, but I don’t think that magnolias would grow very well up here!
I looked at some of the jellycat animals too; I thought that the little truffle pig was cute.
The black flies and mosquitoes are overlapping each other at this point in time. It’s hard to go outside without getting eaten up by something! Thank goodness that we have Cutters and Ben’s 100 and Deep Wood Off at our disposal to help to repel those bloodsuckers!
Sometimes I can’t decide which is worse – the black fly or the mosquito. I think if I had to pick one, I think it would be the black flies because they hurt when they bite AND the bite itches later. With mosquitoes, you don’t usually feel the bite, but the bite itches later. But then again, at night when you are trying to sleep and there is a mosquito in the house buzzing around your head it is impossible to sleep until you’ve turned on the light and killed the thing! I’ve never noticed any black flies in the house at night – ever. So I guess it’s a toss-up alright!
We live far enough out in the “boonies” that going to a commercial gymnasium to get exercise simply isn’t practical. And to be perfectly honest, the line of work that I’m in keeps me going all day every day and having to seek out exercise equipment like elliptical machines and treadmills just isn’t something that I feel the need to do!
But my friend Joe is a desk jockey, and he owns his own business that has been doing very well for quite a long time now. So he has built an addition onto his house to use as his private exercise room. He has put in a lot of different exercise equipment in the room, along with a wide screen television so he can watch television while he is exercising.
He invited several of our friends over this past weekend to show off his new room. I have to admit it was impressive, but my favorite part of it was the refrigerator full of cold drinks and the wide screen television. After all, I exercise all day long!
I was reading an article on msn.careerbuilder.com about how changing jobs frequently has become “the norm.” Gone are the days when a person when to work for one company right out of school and stayed with that company for twenty five years and then retired with a good pension. I think that part of the reason for the change is that companies don’t want to give their employees good benefits with a good pension.
Many companies “lay off” their employees just a week or two before they become benefit-eligible, or before their pension becomes vested. Companies want their employees to be loyal and dedicated and give up their personal life for the company, but employees have learned that even if they do that the company will simply take and take and not give back. Employees have learned that the company is not going be loyal to them, so employees have started to move from company to company, trying constantly to “improve their lot.”
This is going to be interesting, to see how this gets resolved. I hope it does not end up in more jobs going overseas!
I’m always on the lookout for good luggage. It seems that my family members are always asking me if they can borrow a suitcase from me when they go on vacation. I have mixed feelings about that, because I’m afraid that they won’t take good care of my hartmann luggage or that they will never return my tumi luggage.
So I end up buying a few sets of inexpensive luggage to have on hand to “lend” to those habitual borrowers. And if I think that they are trustworthy enough to lend to, I’ll lend my monogrammed briggs and riley luggageso that there is no question who it belongs to when I ask for it back! Sometimes I feel like telling them to “get your own!” And sometimes, if it is a special occasion for someone close to me I’ll buy them a nice piece of luggage for them to have for their own so they’ll quit borrowing mine!
Music is in our family’s heritage. Every holiday we would gather the extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and have a big buffet meal; everyone brought something to eat as a contribution. We would visit for a while and then the instruments would come out and the party would really begin! My relatives would jam for hours on end and we had a great time. One of my uncles played the violin so beautifully it could make you cry!
Up until recently I’ve always bought all of the medicines for our pets directly from the veterinarian. It was quick, easy and convenient. And for the most part the time frame for giving the medicines was something along the lines of “give now” and really couldn’t wait a few days to administer.
Then maintenace medications were created, and the expansion of shopping online has created the opportunity to buy heartworm products online for less money than you have to pay the veterinarian. That is well worth looking into! While my wife was looking for places to do that, she ran across a website in Australia that sells medicines online, offers locals doggy daycare, and sells spoodle puppies sydney. It wasn’t clear whether they carried the puppies in the store itself, or if they specialized in helping customers find breeders. She wanted to look at pictures of the puppies, and get more information about the puppies, but the link that was supposed to carry her to the pictures said that there were not any puppies currently available!
Hospital errors are often caught because a family member or advocate says, “That doesn’t make sense to me.”
If you are facing a hospital stay and have no relative or someone else trustworthy and willing to watch out for you and can afford it, you might consider hiring a patient advocate or private duty nurse. Some hospitals employ patient advocates to help sort out miscommunications. A registry of private-duty nurses available by the day may be available at your hospital. Private patient advocacy groups exist too, but they can be pricey, and not all medical staff welcome involvement of a third party.
Hospitals are becoming more open to support people in patient rooms and are even designing new hospitals with bigger rooms to accommodate more people, some even providing something to sleep on overnight, especially in children’s rooms.
Every few days I get an email from a friend, or business I’ve done business with in the past announcing that they’ve signed up with Twitter. I get “invitations to follow me on Twitter” up to my eyeballs! I understand the concept behind twitter; it is a way for people to “announce” to “whoever is out there” in their “fan base” what they are doing at any given moment. Personally I’m thinking that I don’t have that many friends or fans out there for me to think that anyone would care to know what I’m doing at any given moment – with the possible exception of my mother, and maybe my ex-wife! I think it’s all well and good, but getting emails suggesting that I visit VistaPrint Twitter is something that I just really don’t understand! I think that this is a social network that is not going to last very long in regards to promoting business.
My wife belongs to a yahoo group that focuses on local networking. Basically a community group where people share advice, ask questions, give reviews of local businesses, that sort of thing. This past week it seems that the general trend of conversation has been how to rid the folk’s homes and yards of things like bears, groundhogs and snakes!
It seems that one lady has snakes living in her attic. She doesn’t say what kind of snake! I hope they are not copperheads! Probably black rat snakes. One thing is for sure, my wife would totally freak out if she found snakes in our attic!
Another lady is worried about black bears on her property. She’s afraid that they are becoming aggressive and might harm her children. I’d worry about that too!
And then the groundhogs. Puts me in mind of the movie “Groundhog Day.”
All of these folks have one thing in common. They want advice on how to get rid of these unwanted critters without harming them in any way. It’s nice to be tenderhearted, but there is a limit!
Today we got a postcard in the mail. You know, the typical “the weather is here, wish you were great” type of postcard. It was signed by Matt’s wife. She says that they are having a great time in their Oceanfront Hotel Myrtle Beach vacation. She has gone to several shows while Matt and Tom have been off golfing. She also has been doing some shopping, and is promising that she has bought some great souvenirs for us. She says that she is going to have the staff at the Myrtle Beach Resort mail them to us because she is afraid that she won’t have enough room in her luggage for the plane trip back home.
She says that the Resort in Myrtle Beach is so comfortable that she would love to just live there year round and not have to worry about doing anything other than relax and shop and eat all day long. She’s especially enjoying relaxing on the beach, and then spending time in the private spa in their master bathroom suite after dinner. I can relate to that sentiment!
The past week I’ve been spending a lot of time helping my neighbor mend and paint his fence. He owns a large farm, and there is a lot of fence! We’ve rented a paint sprayer, and we’re using my truck and generator to power the sprayer. We loaded the generator into the back of my truck and he’s been doing the painting while I follow behind him in the truck. We’ve been making some pretty good time that way! I sure am glad we’re not doing it by hand! He’s offered to pay me for the use of my truck and generator and for my time. He’s even bought me a couple of beers after we’ve finished for the day. Not a bad way to spend a week!
Matt loves to play golf. Whenever he comes into town to “visit” family, he spends about 98% of his time on the local golf courses. I think he just says he’s coming up to visit Mom, but he really only joins her for supper, then sleeps at her place, eats breakfast and then hits the golf courses with his best friend Tom. I think that Mom’s place is simply a free place for him to eat and sleep in between his Tee times.
So it is no suprise to hear that he has been looking at some Myrtle Beach Golf Vacations. He’s been talking about arranging for a Myrtle Beach Golf Package for him, his wife, Tom, and Tom’s wife to go spend a week at Myrtle Beach. They’re thinking that the men will take advantage of the several Golf Packages Myrtle Beach while the wives relax on the beach or go shopping together.
This evening I’m taking my wife and Mom out to dinner to celebrate Mother’s Day. They love to eat at the Cracker Barrel. My wife loves their meatloaf, and my mother loves their chicken. They both enjoy shopping around in the gift store part of the restaurant. I expect I’ll have to buy something from the gift store for both of them while we are there. I don’t mind, it makes them happy, and if it makes them happy, then I’m happy! There’s an old adage “If Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy; If Daddy ain’t happy, ain’t nobody cares!” I think that there is a lot of truth to that!
One of the things that I like to do in the spring is go to the local Home and Garden Show and look at all of the trade show exhibits that are there. In addition to the regular trade show exhibit you might expect at any trade show, I like to look at the many machines that are often there. The tractors and mowers always get my attention!
My wife likes looking at the displays that are related to home decorating. She likes to try to figure out how she can alter what we already have, or how to create similar looking accessories without having to buy the new product on display. She’s very clever about that. She also likes to look at the displays themselves. She sometimes thinks about becoming a vendor at craft fairs and is always looking at different types of displays, to get an idea of what kind she might like to use if she ever does make up her mind to get involved. I think it is just a matter of time before she does it! Yesterday I caught her looking at the http://www.gilbertdisplays.com webpage. When I asked her what she was looking at she said she just “window shopping.” Yeah, right.
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day! My wife reminded me today that we are going to take my mother out to eat breakfast tomorrow morning. Last year we took her to her favorite restaurant for Mother’s Day and although we were seated quickly it took forever to get our food, and when it came it was cold. We were very disappointed and said that we would not go there again. So this year we will give her a choice between the local pancake house, or two different big chain breakfast places. I’m sure she’ll be happy just to be going out! It is a big ordeal to take her anywhere because she is disabled and it is hard for her to get around.
I enjoy working in the yard. I like cutting down trees, clearing brush, and working in the garden. Those are some of my favorite things to do. What spoils the fun, though, are the biting insects. The ticks, black flies, and mosquitoes really put a damper on the enjoyment. Not only are the biting bugs a huge annoyance, but they carry diseases too. Yes, I use skin products that repel them, but once I start to sweat the effectiveness is lessened dramatically. That is why my wife and I are considering buying one of those new mosquito trap machines.
My wife has been “bugging” me (pun intended) to buy one of those ever since she found out about them – about three years now. I’ve been trying to put her off, but our old bug zapper light machines have finally died and I can’t seem to find any new ones to replace them so it looks like my wife is going to finally get her way and end up with one of those machines. I know once we get one, we’ll both be more likely to eat our dinners on the back deck, so it will be well worth it.
I just had the opportunity to try a new flavor of ice cream that I’ve never tried before. I usually eat plain Vanilla ice cream. Yeah, I can hear you now – “that’s boring.” Well, I like other flavors too, but vanilla is versatile! Anyway, my favorite brand is Breyers ice cream, and I give my wife a really hard time if she tries to sneak any other brand past me! I can tell the difference! Anyway, my wife brought home some Breyers Caramel Praline Crunch flavor ice cream the last time she went shopping. She told me that she had some at her friend’s house last weekend and that it was really good. Well of course I grumbled about it, but tonight I tried it for the first time, and I have to admit it is really good! My wife might be surprised how quickly that ice cream gets eaten!