Food For Thought (Thursday Thirteen #40)

Imagine the surprise. You sit down for a delicious snack of some “stain everything orange” cheetos and you find Jesus in the bag. That’s just what happened to Missouri’s Kelly Ramey when she found a cheeto shaped just like this.



Kelly has affectionately named her cheeto “Cheesus” and will place him in a safety deposit box.
The phenomenon of seeing religious images in unusual places is known as pareidolia, and it is really just interpreting random images to have some meaning. It’s really no different than being able to see faces or animals in clouds.

This got me thinking about all the times people have seen Jesus, The Virgin Mary or other religious images, faces, symbols and writing in unusual places. You know, like Kelly's cheeto. I really find this fascinating.

Today is Thursday Thirteen....and here's mine...

Thirteen RELIGIOUS IMAGES IN UNUSUAL PLACES 1.The Virgin Mary Under The Bridge. Here in Chicago, a salt stain in an emergency exit under a bridge drew thousands of visitors who believed it to be an image of The Virgin Mary. 2. Jesus In An Ultrasound. A woman in Warwickshire, England discovered the face of Jesus on her ultrasound picture. 3. The Jesus Tortilla. Who could forget way back in 1978 when a New Mexico woman was making a burrito and discovered one of the most well known Jesus on food images? 4. The NunBun. A coffeehouse called Bongo Java became world famous in the 1990's after discovering that one of their cinnamon buns looked like Mother Teresa. I think I'd be a little upset if someone thought this looked like me. 5. Jesus On A Frying Pan. I admit, I see most of these, but I can't quite grasp this one. 6. Fishbone Jesus. I like this one.It also seems much more plausible than making an appearance in a bag of Cheetos. 7. The Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Which, by the way, was ten years old when it captured a bid of $28,000 on eBay. 8. Allah In An Eggplant. This is supposedly "Allah" written in Arabic found in a slice of eggplant. I'm going to have to take their word for it because I don't read that language. 9. Allah In Watermelon. It's not just eggplant, people, Allah's name appears in this watermelon segment, too. 10. Jesus On A Fishstick. This image was found after frying up some fishsticks for dinner. 11. Hot Chocolate Jesus. In this instance, Jesus appears in the drippings of hot chocolate down the side of the cup. It's a cool image, but if you have that much dripping, I'd say you have some sort of drinking issue :) 12. Pierogi Jesus. The face of Jesus appeared on a Toledo, Ohio woman's semicircular dumpling. She nabbed $1,775 for this on eBay when it was purchased by the online casino, GoldenPalace.com. 13. The Virgin Mary Turtle Tummy. We're going to begin and end in The Windy City here with a Chicago woman's pet turtle bearing the image of The Virgin Mary. I guess these things don't appear on food here. I tried like crazy to find a picture of The Pizza Hut Jesus, but was only able to find articles. Do you know of any others?

Release

My daughter was released from the eating disorders program yesterday. Not because she is doing better, but because we ran out of mental health insurance coverage for her.

Until next May.

Don’t get me wrong, she has made tremendous strides and improvements since entering this particular program. I have to say, they do know what they are doing at that treatment center.

As opposed to the one Sam went to last year.

Which should be shut down for malpractice, in my opinion.

Despite the progress, she isn’t 100% ready to leave treatment, but we have no choice. They won’t treat her without insurance, so she will attend the hospital’s alumni group once a week until school starts and will continue with individual therapy and ANAD support groups.

Not only has Sam learned a lot from this program, so has the rest of the family. I feel we are in a much better position to support her here at home now.

I’m praying that it’s going to be enough.

Rock The Casbah

I have to say I was always pretty certain that despite being a rock chick, I have never rocked the casbah. I didn’t even know what a casbah was until I looked it up just now. I was right. I haven't.

That doesn’t mean I can’t rock other things, though.

In my last post, I displayed my first attempt at wooden box making. Last night, I made another one.



Forget the casbah, I rock the band saw!

It’s nice, but too plain. I know some people dig plain and simple. Not me. I’m going to add some scroll saw designs around the main portion of the box. You know, rock it out a bit.

Maybe one day I’ll get so good that my bloggy buddy, Crystal, will feature my work in her Hey, That’s Homemade! series. Crystal makes fabulous and totally affordable jewelry. I recently ordered a custom piece from her for my daughter- a Cat Boot Necklace- and it came out awesome!

I’m working on making a scroll saw pattern of a Bon Jovi portrait for another box. How keeewl would that be? Nature scenes are beautiful, but so is Jovi :)

A little out there? Too bad. Sorry if we clash and I don’t care if The Sharif don’t like it. It’s my life. Errr, box.

Sorry. Got carried away there.

Pandora's Box

I've started something that I'm sure will end up being Pandora's box, but I'm so enjoying it for now.

What is it?

Making band saw boxes! I bought a book that has 25 different boxes and you make them in order to develop some skillz :)

Here's my very first attempt! The box was made on the band saw. It looked too plain, so I drew a little butterfly, burned in some details and then used my scroll saw to cut it out and make a little handle.



What do you think?

Another One Bites The Dust

Everything I own is breaking and I don’t know why. On Friday, our beloved Infiniti J30 bit the dust. If you can call several repairs in the hundreds of dollars “nickel and diming”, that’s exactly what it’s been doing to us lately.

No big surprise, I guess. It was 11 years old. It doesn’t get driven that much. Maybe that’s part of the problem. We’ve had that car for 8 years and only put 14,000 miles on it.

On top of developing some fuel injection issue a few days ago, it started making some clunking noise in the rear of the car. I don’t know what that was, but before I could even get it in to our mechanic for repairs, the transmission went. RIP Infiniti. It’s over.

If I could have picked it up I would have put it in my family room/broken thing graveyard next to my beautiful big screen TV that started on fire and melted. We were going to buy a new one this weekend. Not going to happen now.

After JW and I were done weeping, we decided to buy another car. We both liked the Infiniti, but the reason we put so few miles on it was because it was too small for our family. Since we are usually accompanied by not only our four kids, but often times several of their friends or an entire cheerleading squad, we decided to go with a larger SUV for the replacement.

I know...gas guzzlers. We don’t drive the second vehicle all that much, so that really doesn’t matter, but now we could if we needed to do so. For us, it works.

I am the car buyer in the family. I don’t know why. That’s just how JW and I roll.

I went to a nearby dealership to look at a used Jeep they had listed online. I had never been to this dealership before, but it looked like a good deal for us. If there were a “How To Be A Sleazy Car Salesman Handbook”, this dealership followed it to the letter.

When I buy a car prefer what I call, the no nonsense approach. Don’t yammer at me. Let me drive the car in silence. Tell me the real price you’ll let this car go at off the bat and get me the heck out.

I’m a Payless shoes kind of gal. I don’t need help, I just want to buy what I want and go. I don't need someone telling me how nice my toes look in the shoes.

I tried to sneak into the dealership, but Salesman Dean spotted me before I even found the Jeep I was seeking.

Blah. Blah. Blah. It took him 20 minutes of yammering despite my pleas that he just go get the keys. Had I been seeking a new vehicle, I would have walked right out of there. You can’t be so impatient when buying used, though.

I drove the Jeep and Dean would not shut up. I asked him to please be quiet so I could hear the car. I guess this violates sleazy car salesman handbook because he wouldn’t do it.

I wasn’t that crazy about that Jeep, so I drove a couple of other SUVs and decided I really liked a 2000 Dodge Durango they had on the lot.



When I asked how much, Dean talked for another half hour about how he used to be a cop,( just like my hubby!) until he had a stroke and how his wife drives this same exact Durango. What a coincidence, right?

Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.

The Rock Chick was losing her patience. “Dean, please stop talking. The next thing out of your mouth better be the rock bottom price of this car or I’m leaving.”

I think he believed I was serious because we went back inside. He, of course, had to check with his manager to get me the price. You know, the internet price and then the “cop price” and “this is a gas guzzler and nobody else will buy this” price.

I really should just shop at Carmax.

That took almost an hour. He peeked in on me now and then and some other salesman came over to chitchat.

I got up to leave but Dean stopped me at the door. Sorry, the manager was busy. More blah blah blah.

He gave me a price that, to be honest, I thought was fair. I had come to look at a Jeep and wasn’t armed with all the info on the Durango, but it did seem reasonable and I figured if I counter offered, I'd be there until Thursday.

OK, Dean, you have a deal. Write it up and get me out of here.

Dean pulled out a stack of forms by the dozen. “Don’t you have a computer that does all that?” I asked. For once he didn’t have an answer, but I’m guessing it was no because he proceeded to handwrite all these forms. They must be old school.

He looked up every once in a while to tell me how beautiful I was, how well I drive for a woman, that my husband is a lucky man, how amazing that it is I have four teenagers and how savvy of a car buyer I am.

Yes, Dean, I AM FREAKING FABULOUS. I know. Just keep writing.

If I tell you it took Dean four hours of screwing around to finish the paperwork, would you believe me? I went to Burger King and Walgreen’s to distract myself while he wrote because I was really getting tempted to reach over and grab him by the neck.

Minivan mom goes berserk at auto dealer and twists salesman’s head off. Details at 10.

Ok, it would have to be the next morning’s newscast because it was already well after 10 and I got there at 5 PM.

After Dean gave me the names of every cop he knows at every department in the area (do you know him? do you know him? yes. no. nod.) Finally, the paperwork was done. I paid for the car and I thought I could go.

No so fast, Rock Chick. I still had to see Rocco The Sales Manager, who wanted to thank me for my business (uh huh) and the one vehicle processor they had working, Pito, was still a little behind washing my new ride and attaching the temporary plates.

I told Dean to tell both Pito and Rocco to get a move on. I’m beyond irritated.

Waiting. Waiting. More Waiting.

Dean told me all of his cop stories and which cops he knows at what nearby departments. He even called one of them that we both knew to say “hey, and guess who I am selling a car to right now!”.

Some other salesman wanted to buy me a pizza.

I put my foot down. I yelled loud enough that Rocco came out of the hole he called an office.

“Dean, I paid you for this car. Cash. It’s mine now. I’m holding all the paperwork. Pull it around dirty and without plates, I don’t care. I have a sponge and a screwdriver at home.”


Rocco gave me the “Pito’s almost done” and thanked me for my business, complimented me on my orange purse and tried to sell me some insane extended warranty that cost almost as much as the Dodge Durango itself. It was super duper and covered things like auto theft, car rental if I were in an accident and emergency road service reimbursement. You know, the stuff that my auto insurance already covers.

Rocco was what I call a “lounge lizard”. Over jewelried, over slicked and one smarmy thing after another coming out of his mouth.

“Forget it, Rocco. I’m not going to buy it.”

He tried again with a different approach about how I just made an investment in that Durango and I don’t want to protect it?

A car is an investment? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! Perhaps Rocco needs a dictionary. I reminded him that what he’s trying to sell me, my auto insurance already covers.

He starts to tell me that’s not true until I remind him that not only do I know what my auto insurance covers, I actually sell auto insurance.

Ok, he said, but say my car is stolen, I could collect from my insurance company and this “other company”. I could get double! Like an insurance lottery or something.

You know, I’m no insurance fraud investigator, but something in my gut tells me that my insurance company would take issue with that.

“Rocco, it was very nice to meet you, but tell Pito to move his butt and drive my car to the front. I’m leaving.”

Rocco got very pissy all of a sudden. He told me that he stayed late just to thank me for my business and he’s just trying to get me to protect my investment and I won’t even listen to him. Yeah, ok, Rocco. Kiss my ass. We’re done. Catboots on.

Amazingly, Pito had just finished screwing on the temporary plates and within moments had my new to me SUV at the front doors.

I had a headache and was glad to go home after 6 and half hours at a dealer for a cash deal. Ridiculous, but I was super happy with the SUV.

JW and I drove it, checked it all out and I don’t know what possessed me, but I went to the dealer's website to look at the car I just bought.

Online, the price was $1,000 less than I paid for it. I checked Vehix and the same price was listed there, too. Really, I thought what I paid was fair and that’s the only reason I sat there so long. Now I was livid.

So, dressed in my Catboots, I went back the next morning to see Dean and Rocco. I have to say, when I walked in the door, they were a little surprised to see me.

Honestly, I didn’t really expect them to do anything about the price because the deal was already done, but it was worth a shot. It was $1,000!

In Dean’s attempts to make friends with me, he gave away too much information about the cops he knows who refer him business. I sell things for a living, too.

I showed Dean the printout off his website and he turned a little pale.

“Dean, you told me yesterday that the price you gave me was the internet price. You played the cop card and even called an acquaintance of mine to tell him I was buying a car. Imagine how slow your “cop referrals” are going to be when I tell all those mutual cops we know how you ripped me off.”

Shit. I’ll tell cops I don’t even know. What do I care?

Some woman who at first appeared to be a customer at the next table got up and walked into Rocco’s office.

Rocco came out all sweet and lounge lizardy. This is a mistake on our website. More blah, blah, blah.

I handed him the Vehix listing, as well. Is this a mistake, too?

They went to talk to Rocco’s manager for like thirty minutes and then came back. I have to admit, I was shocked that they were going to refund me the difference.

Call the police, this woman is trying to steal this car! BWAHAHAHAHA! Funny, Rocco. Do they teach you that stuff in smileball school?

Catboots one. Lounge Lizard....zip.

It only took me 8 hours to pay cash for the car, but after the $1,000 back, it was totally worth it.

Although, I’d never go there again and I still will tell everyone I know not to go there, either :)

Standing On The Edge

If you send Postcards From The Funny Farm online like my bloggy buddy Damien does, society accepts this. It’s not unlike like the “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV” mentality. You can get away with doing things online and on TV that are perhaps not tolerated as well in real life. Like being RANTastic, for example.

People love to read bitchy things online. It’s a whole different story if they have to listen to you in person. If you can find someone who really wants to listen to your crap, consider yourself lucky.

That being said, sometimes the manure just piles up to a point that you find yourself physically licking the stamps and heading to the mailbox with your “postcards from the edge”. When this happens, friends, it’s high time to take some action. Unless you want to talk to spirits through Ouija boards and one day risk reincarnation as a Britney Spears or a Lindsey Lohan. Or worse, Shirley Maclaine.

At least Britney and Lindsey realize they have issues.

I have issues with heights and find the edge of anything quite unsettling. With all that’s been going on here lately (I promise-full story coming soon!), I needed a break before I broke, mentally and financially, so we decided to escape for the weekend.

The signs were all there. I’ve been so carefully hand building and decorating my dollhouse. One evening late at night, I was working on it while wearing my TMJ splint (which gives me Angelina Jolie lips), and something about her just overcame me. No, I didn't just have a baby like Jessica Morris or two like Brangelina. I also didn't change one of my kids' names to Knox, either.

Knock. Knock. Who's there? Knox. Who's there, I said? KNOX. Who's there? Knox Jolie-Pitt! Honestly, terrible name, Angelina.

I decided to paint the bedroom in my dollhouse what turned out to be a positively dreadful purple color. The color of the paint was called “Deep Purple Dream” but on the walls of my dollhouse, “Torture Chamber” "Nightmare On Elm Street" or maybe even "Deep Throat" seems more applicable.

I tried to make the best of it, but I was unable to locate any miniature chains, whips, sex swings and/or bondage devices for dollhouse torture chambers. In case you were wondering, nobody sells leather outfits or those gag balls for dollhouse people, either.

I try my best to always make lemonade from lemons, but I guess I’ll just have to get some Killz and repaint it.

And then, I totally upset Desperate Housewives suburbia when I took Middle Daughter to the world famous Jade Dragon Tattoo Parlor (they tattoo Motley Crue!) in my minivan to get her nose pierced. More about that later, too. (It’s not as bad as it sounds.) Interestingly, if you ever watch Miami Ink with the somewhat Angelina-like and very edgy Kat Von D, two of her tattoo artists in her shop come from Chicago's Jade Dragon. The work they do there is amazing if you're into that kind of thing. I don't want one, but I don't mind watching the work in progress. Contrary to what you see on LA Ink, people were kind of yelping in pain getting tattooed. I knew it!

But, I finally knew I was in trouble when I was playing Malcolm’s weekly trivia game and really believed that Gary Coleman had won an Emmy.

Seriously. Gary Coleman? An Emmy? What was I thinking? DANGER DANGER DANGER!. I knew it was time to take action. Final straw. Book the hotel room.

So, we cowboyed up and I did something this weekend that I haven’t done since I was a youngin’ on my grandparent’s farm in Alabama.

I rode a horse. GIDDYUP!

And unlike last year’s “Ride An Elephant at the Renaissance Fair” fiasco, this was so pleasurable, I can’t wait to do it again!

We went to Seneca and Utica, Illinois in search of peace, harmony, nature and a heck of a rock band. My buddy, The Big BahUna, played a gig at Seneca’s Summerfest on Saturday night with his new band, Betty Might, and we wanted to see him, so we made a family togetherness weekend out of it.

Being from a big city, I will say they use the term “Summerfest” a little loosely there.

It’s more of what we would call a carnival here in Chicago. Something that arrives overnight in a parking lot somewhere and vanishes as quickly as it came in 3 or 4 days with all of your money. Not completely unlike the people transiently employed at said Summerfest :)

Starved Rock State Park is right in that area and truly, it is one of the most captivating places I have ever seen. They offer a tour on horseback around one of the canyons and through a huge field of wheat. Yeah, not corn! Took me by surprise, too! Our tour guide, Cassie, was not only informed about everything under the sun related to the Starved Rock area, but she was definitely a storyteller just like my other bloggy friend, Shelly.

Cassie engaged us with stories of the Native American tribes and their buffalo runs. The buffalos were chased to the cliff’s edges and they would fall to their deaths providing food and skins for the Native Americans that once inhabited that area. She also taught us about the different markings on horses and which ones were considered sacred by the Native Americans. It was really fascinating and I found the stories combined with movement of the horse and the scenery to be soooo relaxing.

And I must say, even for city folk, the kids and I make awesome cowboys, no?



I could have stayed there forever if my butt didn’t hurt so bad. They really should pad those saddles a bit for bone butts like me. Thank goodness the hotel had a hot tub.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Cassie's historical tales we great, but you know me and my insatiable appetite for stories of crime and/or scandal, and I wanted to know the scoop on what really goes on in that place. She laughed and told me some tidbits and suggested I read a book called "The Starved Rock Murders".

Starved Rock Murders? How on earth did I miss hearing about that? I went to the bookstore, but they didn’t have it. I’m trying to locate a copy online, but so far, I’m having as much luck as I had with the itty bitty S&M search. Perhaps the cover of this book might have something to do with its' lack of circulation. I'm just saying.

When we left Starved Rock, two deer jumped right in front of my car. I had never seen one so close up alive before and they were magnificent. One fled, but the other froze inches from my bumper and just gazed at us with her huge chocolate colored eyes for a while. We stared back in wonderment. As my kids would say....kewl!

The whole weekend was way kewl except for a too small hotel room. A night in there would have been tolerable, but the entire weekend in that room was what you might refer to as a little too much family togetherness.

At first, I was very disappointed that JW couldn’t go with us as planned because of a work situation. I mistakenly thought that computers were supposed to make one’s life easier. That might be partially true for the users, but for the people who have to maintain them, this is a total fallacy.

In the end, I was actually kind of relieved because there wasn’t room as it was in the hotel with the five of us. Another body in there might have sent someone over the edge, exactly like the buffalo. Or worse, Shirley Maclaine. We certainly wouldn’t want that to happen!

I have to say, things are looking up. No more walking on the edge, we’re all back on the trail, pardners!

I'M BAAAAAAACK!

I Won't Crap Out

Even though....



Yes, it does.

We ran away from home this weekend to escape all the manure that's been happening. When I saw this photo op I couldn't pass it up. Full story coming soon. First I have to help clean up my office from Thursday's nights little fire. I couldn't do it Friday because I was getting new tires after a blow out.

Sigh. Manure is a nice way to put it.

Tools Of The Trade

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about tools.

Power tools and coping tools. Blueprints, blue moods and the importance of using the right tool for the job. You can’t put a screw in with a hammer, people. Believe me, I’ve tried.

There’s been very few things I haven’t been able to fix with my Catboots. One swift kick in the ass is usually all that’s needed to straighten out even the twistiest of problems. See, I don’t kick unless I’m sure I’m in the right.

Hard to believe, but my Catboots are not the proper tool in the battle of my daughter’s eating disorder (a.k.a. TED). TED is high up there on the anxiety producing scale and with my existing anxiety problems, it’s taken on monstrous proportions. For that reason, I have decided to give it a name.

When we finally kick it’s ass, it will know what to put on it’s tombstone.

Coincidentally, I swear, my first boyfriend was named Ted. He didn’t have an eating disorder, but he could have used a kick in the ass. I hadn’t discovered my Catboots back then, so this will serve as a double whammy.

Obviously, Catboots and power tools weren't going to kick Ted’s butt. We also needed a different kind of tool. Enter Eating Disorder Programs, Therapy and positive methods of dealing with anxiety.

I’ve learned that pulling out your hair and having panic attacks are not the right coping tools. Who would have thought? (Ok, I admit I did already know that)

In order to get my darling daughter to stop her negative behaviors, it would be most helpful to stop mine, too, because my anxiety is triggering her. We both need better methods of dealing with anxiety issues.

We needed a plan, a blueprint, if you will, and of course, the proper tools. We also needed to find something that Sam would enjoy as much as we did so we could all do it together.

If you have any experience with 15 year olds, you know this is a feat in itself.

First things first. Eliminate stressors that you can control.

Clutter. My garage was packed with crap and completely unorganized. You couldn’t even walk through it and it was irritating just to try to drag a hose through the garage to water my now luxurious gardens. I'll take a picture. Even I can't believe it!

JW and I dumped everything we really didn’t need, organized all of our tools and even put in a workbench. Holy smokes! It’s almost like we have an extra room in the house now!

Digging out the garage led to an amazing find, too! A scroll saw. Years and years ago, JW was interested in doing some woodworking. He cut a few Halloween decorations and I painted them and then life took over and all of that was forgotten.

I'm normally a little afraid of power tools, but I decided to give it a try. As it turns out, I seem to have a talent for the scroll saw. Within minutes, I was making pieces that amazed me and floored the hubby. I’m normally a little afraid of power tools, but I can rock this thing!

As I was scrolling a zoo of animals (I don’t know), an idea came to me. My daughter loves designing and decorating. Re-do our house? No. I had a better idea.

A doll house.

I found some plans online, got 2 sheets of plywood and got busy. Sam thinks it rocks and has come up with a whole bunch of ideas for decorating and insists on hand making everything ourselves.

It’s amazing how the right tools and a little practice can help you turn a useless chunk of wood into something positive and enjoyable for everyone. It can provide an outlet for anxiety as well as a permanent object to enjoy and take pride it. With the right tools and the right set of plans, I’m becoming more and more convinced that you can make anything happen.

We are finding those tools, practicing and learning to work with them. We are making it and eventually, we will construct the exact set of plans to kick TED’s ass. No measuring required.

We are making it. There is no stronger power tool than that.

Roller Coaster

It’s back to work, life and driving after an extended up and down blogging absence. Roller coaster like, as my friend Keith Partridge would say. Personally, I always thought Shaun Cassidy was “Da Doo Ron Ron” cuter.

Hang on tight, kids. Here we go!!!!

Up: My daughter did extremely well following her meal plan this past weekend and participating in quite a few 4th of July activities. We also discovered two new twists on some old favorite board games...Life: Twists and Turns and Monopoly Electronic Banking Edition. Both keep track of your money and things with handheld devices and debit cards instead of the paper money. We’re board game people and both were lots of fun to play.

Down: Life: Twist and Turns turned out to be a little more accurate than I cared for, though. While we were playing, I got a phone call that my co-worker’s, (The Biker Chick) husband passed away. He was recently diagnosed (like 2 weeks ago) with a brain tumor, but no one had any idea the end was that close. Very Sad.

All Around: We also went to a Fourth of July Parade over the weekend. The good part is that I never have to search for parking because the parade passes right by my crazy in-law’s house and I can park in their driveway. The downside, of course, is that the parade passes right by my crazy in-law’s house and I am trapped there for a few hours.

Like A Roller Coaster: My in-law’s, including my brother-in-law, The Cellar Dweller, make Everybody Loves Raymond’s family look like The Cunninghams. You just have to laugh around them because if you don’t, you’ll cry. Trust me. I often wonder how JW escaped with his sanity.

It Keeps Going Faster: My beautiful big screen TV is broken, malfunctioning and I believe kaput. I love that TV except for some “flaw” that Sony neglected to mention. The $200 bulb burns out on that TV like all the time. I just replaced in in April and it blew out again so I called the store to bitch. They said to bring in the bulb and they would replace it for me. We took the TV apart to remove the bulb and everything around the bulb was melted. MELTED! Now I have to call some tech guy who I’m sure won’t even show up the first three times I schedule him ('cause that’s how we do things here in Chicago) to tell me the TV is fried.

Thrills Coming At Ya: My attempt to stop hairpulling has been non-successful to date. In fact, it’s been worse because now I’m thinking about it. I’ve been trying to squish Play-Doh and play with stress balls to no avail.

And I Walk Down: The reason I haven’t been blogging is because I’ve been driving, not actually walking, but that's not in the lyrics :) Since my daughter stepped down a program in the hospital, I drive her there in the morning and then pick her up again at 3 and I work in the interim. Too hard to drive on the expressway and type. I’ve seen people do it, it just doesn’t look safe to me.

All Around: I’ve also been working a lot of hours since my co-worker isn’t there. I’ve also been peeking at used car dealers for a car for my oldest because with our new schedules, we’re having incredible difficulties getting everyone everywhere they need to be. This was supposed to be my ex-husband’s responsibility, but I’ll tell you about that later. It needs a blog entry onto itself. We’ve also been gardening (the front of the house looks great!) and planning to build another deck (just a floor) in the backyard so I can put my gazebo up and actually use it. It’s not doing much good in a box in the garage, right? Oh, and get ready for a Catboot story because my patience has worn very thin with an ex-friend of mine and she’s about to feel my boot heels. I just have to polish them up first.

That’s pretty much it.

Like a roller coaster.

Looking Up

Great news! My daughter is making great progress in the battle against the eating disorder and was moved from the inpatient program to a partial day program. This means she is able to come home for the evenings and the weekends!

Last night was her first night home. It went very well and it was a relief to have her back home smiling and enjoying herself. It’s obviously still a major struggle and will be for a long while, but things are definitely looking up!

I haven’t finished the garden chairs that we were making. We finished one of them and the other one is cut and ready to be assembled, just haven’t gotten to it yet. Hopefully, we can get that done this weekend!

I also have been spending a lot of time looking down at the ground and working on my gardens in order to spruce up the house. My first attempt and planting and designing a garden is working and my marigolds are growing like weeds right along with the weeds!



I’ve been diligently pulling them out, though and it’s looking very nice!
I also planted some perennials in front of my porch and I’m just crazy about the way it looks! I still have to put my mulch around all this and get the crazy Chicago wind to stop blowing the leaves off my flowers, but take a look!



I don’t know what’s happened to me. I normally have no luck with plants because I tend to forget about them. Not anymore!

I hope everyone enjoys their 4th of July weekends. We will be seeing parades, fireworks and visiting with family and neighbors, I think and I will be snapping out of my funk and returning to my regularly scheduled RANTastic programming.

It’s time!