This is it

I have both my kids here, today they will head back to Fayetteville with my computer.  Until I get to Germany and get Internet for the laptop you won’t hear from me.  From the amount of interaction lately on xanga I doubt it will be a big blow to anyone.  Is it just me or is everyone taking a break.  Granted this xanga break, unlike the other ones I’ve taken, is not of my choosing.  It just seems to me that the old gang isn’t around much anymore.  

One of the things I get in Germany will be a digital camera.  I want to be able to post pictures of our house, car, the countryside where we are living, etc.  So that will be a priority purchase.  If you have a recommendation please put it here.  Include features of the camera you can’t live without, approx. cost and an ease of use rating. (1 being easiest 5 being hardest type thing)  Also a “would you buy this camera again?”  Here’s your chance to brag on your smart buy!     And if you know someone else on xanga that has a camera invite them over here to brag would you.  Spread the word.

Time to sign off…see you in a month or so.  Let’s see how many readers I have then, ha.  You think I don’t notice your absence but I do.  I miss you when you don’t comment. 

Germany here I come.

Deutschland komme Ich

Well things are moving along quite nicely.  I’m walking out of this house Tuesday come hell or high water.  Locking the door and walking away.  I finally decided to just start throwing crap in the car and sort it out in St. Louis.  Two piles…one to take on the plane and one to mail.  Now isn’t that a good plan? 

Yesterday I got up before daylight.  I cleaned out the chest freezer, moved it onto the front porch and washed it out really good for it’s new owner.  Then I cleaned off the desk.  Then I cleaned the living room, vacumned and rolled up the area rug for storage.  Then I helped load the lawnmower which I had also sold.  I spent a fun few minutes screwing the doors to the back of the shop closed, per the orders of a certain Bear.   (haha, I said screwing)     Helped the neighbor pull down the rotting fence that’s between our properties.  And let’s not forget the 15 or 20 phone calls from people who forget when I’m leaving and keep calling to ask.  Which I totally don’t get…it’s not that complicated.  The good news is, I’ve heard from some people (who shall remain nameless, is that you Tarzan?)  that I didn’t think I would get to talk to until I got back stateside.   I even get to steal her child for a month next summer AND have a great time in Germany on her dime.  Might be time to get a Frommer’s on Germany.  Though when we were in Spain I used my Off The Beaten Track much more. I know by next summer I’ll be so ready to run around and do some fun things, so it will be great to have someone to run around with.  I hate to go alone.  Last time I was in Frankfurt I took a Rhine River tour.  I had to go alone and while I did enjoy the day it would have been so much more fun to have someone along.  I’m hoping I can time Allison’s visit to coincide, I’m a more the merrier kind of gal. 

So now I am off to visit amazon to order some books which will have to be shipped to my sisters house.  A little light reading for the 9 hour flight.  I know this is dreck but hey it’s my life right now, so get over it. 

later buttmonkeys

GOTCHA, YOU STINKY LITTLE BOOGER!

OR

WHO HAS OPPOSABLE THUMBS?

If you read my last entry you know that I have had a skunk on my front porch the last couple of weeks.  He always comes up just before bed and I’m always worried that he’ll spray.  Well I got a live trap from animal control and set it up.  The only hitch to my little endeavor is my neighbor lady’s six cats.  I had to keep every single one of them in the house overnight so I wouldn’t catch one of them.  Last night I set the trap up again, and I caught…ta da. Drumroll please, a stray CAT!  Luckily he was staring out of the cage before I went to bed so I knew it wasn’t the skunk and didn’t have too get to close to make sure.  I debated on whether I should leave him in there and have animal control pick him up in the morning, but my greed for the skunk won out.  I’ve seen this cat around before and he’s extrmely skittish, so I figured if I scared him bad enough he wouldn’t come back and get caught again.  Please don’t call PETA on me…I picked up the cage…gave it a few shakes, lifted it high and lowered it really quickly so he would think he was falling and then opened the door.  I promise I didn’t hurt him.  That cat hit the road so fast he was nothing but a white and black blur.  I swear I have never in my life seen anything move that fast.  Fast forward to morning.  I check the door to the trap…it’s down…my heart sinks ’cause I know I caught the stray cat again.  I step onto the front porch, lean down to have a look and woohoo, we have skunk.  Problem 1: it’s 7:30 A. M.  problem 2: as soon as I opened the door three of the cats ran out.  Problem 3:  The skunk immediatly sets up a banging inside the cage and lets loose with his primary weapon.  Problem 4:  Animal control doesn’t open until 8:00 A. M. and even then I’m not guranteed that she will come out right away.  Now I don’t know about any of you but #4 is the worst of the lot, by far.  I got lucky and someone answered the phone at 7:50 A.M. and by 8:30 the little stinker was gone.  And to prove I’m lucky, all the smell went with him.  He must have been facing the back of the cage when he let loose, I put a box fan on high speed blowing down the steps and in less than 15 min. all trace was gone.  So I am just a happy camper…and as a bonus I haven’t seen hide nor hair of the stray that had been hanging around harassing the little cats.  That was my start to the day….how was yours?

I’m still alive and kicking!

I know it’s been a really long time since anyone has heard from me.  To sum up, which will take a lot less time than going into detail, since I last posted…..

I spent a week in Wisconsin, 4 days in Iowa, 2 weeks helping Allie move North.  A week in New Orleans and two weeks helping Barry get ready to leave for Germany.  Since he left last Wednesday, I have done pretty much nothing except pack and try to clear out the house for my departure.  I have 17 days left before I leave the house.  In that time I have to get this house ready to be empty for the next three years.  It’s not that we won’t ever come back to visit in that time, we will.  When we do come back though it won’t be to burst water pipes or critters that have taken up residence.  At least I hope that’s not what we come back to find.  The hardest part is going through the accumulation of the last 17 years and deciding what to pack for storage, what to put in the yard sale and what to send over to Germany.   Whew!    If you don’t hear from me for another month or so it is not because I don’t want to write, it’s one of two things….I’m in Germany with no Internet access or I’m trying to be a good little girl and need to work, work, work.  Or it could be both.

In other news a skunk has taken up nightly residence on my front porch.  I called animal control and they brought out a live trap.  I got all six of the neighbors cats into the house last night so they wouldn’t get caught instead of little pepe le pew.

You know what it’s like trying to sleep in a house with six cats that have never slept a night inside in their entire lives.  Bang, crash, slam, meowr, meowr, meowr.  In the morning NO skunk in the trap.  I don’t know if all the noise in the house scared him off or if he’s to smart to get caught.  Either way I’ll try again tonight.

In stupid news…My passport got delayed for renewal because….ta da.  I didn’t sign the application!   sheesh!  It would have been here over a week ago if it hadn’t been for that little snafu.  What a maroon.

In romantic news……  Before Barry left we drove up to see our girls and fairly new son-in-law so he could say farewell.  On the way up I was looking for a decent radio station and Barry told me there was a country song he had heard several times while on the road.  He didn’t know the name of the song and didn’t know who sang it but it reminded him of me every time he heard it.  So naturally I wanted to hear it and found a country station to listen to.  For two days we listened to country music instead of our usual classic rock and never heard  this song.  We got back home and one day while headed to the store I flipped to our local country station and we caught the tail end of it.  When Allison came down to visit that weekend I told her what lyrics I could remember and she did a lyric search and found it.  I was blown away that not only does my beloved know how I feel about him, but to find out how he feels about me.  Sappy as it is we cannot be happy or content without each other.   So for your erudition here are the lyrics.

She thinks I walk on water;
She thinks I hung the moon.
She tells me every mornin’,
“They just don’t make men like you.”

She thinks I’ve got it together;
She swears I’m as tough as nails.
But I don’t have the heart to tell her,
That she don’t know me that well.

Sometimes, she cries on my shoulder,
When she’s lyin’ next to me.
But she don’t know that when I hold her,
That she’s really holdin’ me, holdin’ me.

She don’t know how much I need her;
She don’t know I’d fall apart,
Without her kiss, without her touch,
Without her faithful lovin’ arms.
She don’t know that it’s all about her;
She don’t know I can’t live without her.
She’s my world, she’s my everything,
And she thinks she needs me.






Yeah, now the funny thing is,
She thinks she’s the lucky one.

She don’t know how much I need her;
She don’t know I’d fall apart,
Without her kiss, without her touch,
Without her faithful lovin’ arms.
She don’t know that it’s all about her;
She don’t know I can’t live without her.
She’s my world, she’s my everything,
And she thinks she needs me.

She thinks I walk on water;
She thinks I hung the moon.

I couldn’t believe that my unsentimental, unromantic husband chose that song. 

Well this is it for now.  I need to mow the yard and start packing again.  I’ll try not to let so much time go by before my next post.  Have a happy humpday!!