Frankly, My Dear…

Yes, I know that was a couple of days ago, but I was without access to the blog so I’m talking about it now! That was the day I graced the earth—many moons ago! I arrived around 4:30 a.m. and weighed 6# 13 ozs, which is also how much my son weighed, years later! Certain members of my family would say that was one of the few times I was early. To them, I would say– zip it! No one is perfect, you know! And there are bigger flaws to be had. Need I mention any?! Getting back to the theme at hand–my sisters were 12, 11 and 9 when I was born. Their father had been killed in an accident when they were much younger. I was my daddy’s only child. I’m sure he felt like he’d hit the jackpot!

I look alittle like him in this picture. I’m sure my mother made the dress I’m wearing and the booties, too. (And why do hospitals insist on combing babies’ hair that way? My daughter’s hair was done the exact same way! I’d comb it down, she’d go to the nursery and come back with the little flip again!) My daddy also told me that I liked ice cream so much, I’d eat it until my nose was red.

I’ve had some fun birthdays in the past, but haven’t had one in awhile. this is one of the last ones, my 26th:

My face is alittle pink ’cause it was a surprise party at a relative’s house and I turned about as red as a human being could when I got inside! I had planned a surprise party for my husband a couple of months before with a friend of mine whose husband had a birthday like a day after and we told each of them that the party was for the other one! Weren’t we clever?! Let me tell you, it worked like a charm and they were both surprised! So, not to be outdone, he surprised me back! It was funny.

We’ve had some fun parties for the kids but the one I remember most was one for my daughter in the second grade. I invited the whole class, thinking they would not all be able to come–HA! I had a house full of running, yelling kids for a couple of hours! It was in June, so they were in and out of the house, too! From then on I was all for small parties!

Having my birthday in April was good, weather-wise, usually. I have a lot of pictures with sunshine in them. And even though they aren’t as much fun to celebrate anymore, I had some fun parties growing up.

I hope David, Todd and Eric also had a happy shared birthday this year!

Holy Cow!

HO-LY COW!!!!!

Two weeks without a computer! Frustration level brimming over! Behind in all things! How will I ever catch up?! Have to share the computer with my son, so there might be bloodshed! (j/k)

I’ll do a post tomorrow and try to catch up on reading, too. Remind me to tell you how fun the library isn’t! The list of things you can’t do is much longer than the list of things you can do! A woman sat down by me yesterday and from time to time hummed and popped gum! Both of which were VERY annoying! The woman alittle further down–but not out of earshot–was using her cell phone! I tried not to listen but, of course, that was all I could hear! They’ll never know how close they came to hearing me scream…..just to annoy them!

Cheetah wasn’t the only one celebrating a birthday. Mine was the 25th. However, I am not 75! More about that later!

Thanks to our friend, Jason, for getting us back online!

Basil here, with something you need to know about.

Turns out that computer problems … not, not just computer problems, but computer problems and more computer problems … mean that Bama is not able to update her blog.

She’s not mad at you … or me (yet) … she’s just having problems getting online.

She misses you. She may even miss me. And she’s trying to get her computers fixed and get back online.

Hey, even if she doesn’t miss me, I miss her.

Hope you get things fixed soon, girl!

Cheeta, the chimpanzee from the Tarzan movies, had a birthday yesterday. He was 75! (Of course, you probably didn’t hear about it ’cause of the 2 baboons who are monopolizing the airways!) He’s in good health and lives in CA. He has outlived the humans that were in the same movies.

I saw a clip of him eating birthday cake after which he and his trainer gave each other a very open mouth kiss!! It was not pretty!

Happy Birthday, Cheeta! But I’m not giving you a kiss! Sheesh

Did you hear about the couple on a cruise who fell from their balcony while “playing Titanic”? He was lifting her up and she went overboard and he went in after her! I bet alcohol was involved! I cannot even imagine falling off a big ship into the Gulf of Mexico–at night! Someone must’ve seen it because the cruise ship turned around and after 4-5 hours of searching–while they were treading water and available for any sharks in the area–found them! They were not even together! And VERY lucky to have been found!

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Be on the look-out for Joe Francis! He’s a fugitive! Failed to appear in court! Excuse me, it’s hard to type and bend over double with laughter at the same time! HAHAHAHA Could it happen to a more deserving sleazebag? His amount to pay the girls who sued him has already been increased! heh There’s got to be a play on Girls Gone Wild somewhere in there!

UPDATE: Francis is in custody in FL. Heck, I was hoping to see him on America’s Most Wanted!

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Did you see the guy who climbed about 60′ up a tree to catch his pet cockatoo? He said the bird slept with him and was potty-trained. (I wonder how you do that?) So he just hugged the tree and went up to where it was. Problem was, he couldn’t get down once he had the bird! Two different helicopters tried to get him down before one was successful! It was said that he planned to clip the bird’s wings once he got home! That might be a good idea! I wonder if he got a bill for the helicopters?

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Last, but not least:
You’ve most likely heard about the volunteer fireman who was suppose to be on his way to a contest but stopped off at a park and put on a display that scared someone enough to call the cops! Do you think he knows he will NEVER live this down??! Never!

The 3 college boys who burned several rural churches last year have been sentenced to 7-8 years in prison and a combined restitution of 3.1 million dollars. Russell DeBusk, 20, will serve 7 years and Matthew Cloyd, 21, and Benjamin Moseley, 20, will both serve 8 years. The diference in time is because the two decided to set more fires in a different area to throw investigators off their tracks. Obviously that didn’t work! They faced a minimum of 7 years because 2 firefighters were injured at one of the churches.

Some of the churches offered forgiveness and the 3 accused apologized before the sentencing. Evidently, they were spotlighting deers and unable to find any, decided to set fires instead. Had they not been drinking, common sense might’ve convinced them that that was not a good idea! Hard to imagine being that young–or any age–and faced with repaying millions of dollars! Really sad all the way around.

Troy, at Bouhammer’s Afghan Blog has posted a video of the party the Afghan soldiers they’ve been working with gave them, as they prepare to come home. Some of the Americans showed up in native dress to the delight of the Afghans! Troy also included a video of the Afghans dancing! Go see!

Click on the blogroll.

This is from a past Easter at our house. I hope you have a Happy Easter with your family.

Easter was always fun for the little people! There was always some uncomfortable new clothes and shoes to wear to church and usually you weren’t allowed to eat any candy from your Easter basket until after Easter dinner. Torture! The fun part was getting out of the new clothes and shoes and going on an egg hunt! We usually went to my grandmother’s where there were lots of places to hide eggs and LOTS of eggs! (I can’t believe how many eggs we ate and lived!) And sometimes I went to my cousin’s cousin’s (Different side of the family–shut up!) where there was another large egg hunt and several “special” eggs that you got money if you found them! Fun!

My mother was amazing with a sewing machine and my sisters and I had beautiful Easter dresses every year. I didn’t like all the fittings and really didn’t fully appreciate all the work that went into them.

Guess who never learned to sew?!

Have fun out there trying to remember where you hid all the eggs!

This is Norman. He was our bunny for 5 years which is about the average lifespan for a rabbit. My daughter named him for the Norman Bates character in “Psycho” but Norm was much nicer! I hope if anyone got a bunny for Easter you’ve done some homework on how to take care of one! We learned ‘on the job’ after buying Norman on impulse. We always picked up a bunny to pet at the pet store and after our Min Schnauzer died, we were weak and needing something to cuddle!

After we got him home, I thought–now what?! We got a cardboard box–a deep one–and I thought we were set for the time being! He was so small, surely he couldn’t get out! HA That’s why I was surprised to wake up and see him slinking by the bed! I scooped him up and found something–seems like it was a sweater dryer– to put over said box! heh Next, I found something to hold that down! He was very agile! Very soon I went to a pet store and bought a metal cage that was $100–on sale!

Rabbits can be litter trained but it doesn’t work too well when you have a kitten! I also thought they might become friends but that wasn’t happening either! Everything was fine until Norman started moving, then the predator mode seemed to take over. My daughter played with him everyday and he seemed to show his attraction to her by doing circles around her and he liked to lick her but she would soon get tired of that!

Guess who got to clean out his cage! I didn’t mind it too much. heh The fun times were letting him out and closing as many doors as we could so we wouldn’t have to look everywhere for him! He would run down the hall and bounce about three feet in the air now and then, usually with the kitten hot on his heels! He learned to go back in his cage when I got the broom and told him to get in. He resisted, at first, but eventually went in!

It was fun to watch him pull his ears down and clean them like a cat and show his teeth when he yawned. He looked like crushed velvet because he was a Rex and his hair grew a particular way. We had to be careful when we picked him up so he felt supported, otherwise you can get a nasty scratch. Found that out the hard way! The best food for bunnies is alfalfa cubes and pellet type that you can buy at almost any store. They need to have water available and something to chew on so their teeth don’t get too long. Also, wire or metal is hard on the feet. They also will chew on electrical wire–Norm chewed on our telephone wire even though we thought we were watching him!

I saw someone on PBS who had an entire room devoted to bunnies and she said she gave hers bananas–not carrots–bananas! Lettuce and carrots contain too much water and can give them diarrhea and kill them. From then on, whenever I sliced a banana, I gave Norm a couple of pieces first! After he died, I thought about him for the longest time anytime I sliced a banana!

As much fun as Norman was, I think we’ve decide unless we can have one outside safely, we don’t want another one in a cage! And please don’t think you can just turn him loose if things don’t work out! That isn’t really fair and is basically a death sentence for the bunny!

Oh yes! This is for all you nay-sayers–cats are no good, cats shouldn’t be inside, blah, blah!

Well it’s a good thing this 14 yr old cat was inside to wake up her owners ’cause she saved their lives! That’s right–saved their lives! She isn’t the first to do it, but it bears repeating!

Winnie, the 14 yr old cat who belonged to Cathy and Eric Keesling, New Castle, IN, woke them after the gasoline powered water pump in the basement filled the house with carbon monoxide fumes, by nudging Cathy’s ear and memowing loudly!

“It was a crazy meow, almost like she was screaming,” said Cathy, who hesitated to get up until Winnie’s caterwauling and jumping persisted.

When she finally climbed from bed, she realized she was nauseous and dizzy and couldn’t awaken her husband. Because he had undergone minor neck surgery the previous day, she decided to call 911 but was so disoriented she had trouble dialing.

Paramedics found the couple’s 14-year-old son, Michael, unconscious on the floor near his bedroom. The Keeslings were taken from the home in oxygen masks, treated for carbon monoxide poisoning and soon recovered.

Cathy Keesling said Winnie acted similarly last summer when tornadoes tore through the area, 45 miles east of Indianapolis.

“I really believe cats can sense these kind of things,” she said.

And she was screaming! She was saying get up outta this bed and get my precious kittyself out of this poison! Move it! Move it!

Yay and kitty-treats for Winnie!