I’m a fairly organized person with most things around the house. When I was single and only had my bedroom to contend with, believe me, I knew if I went to my crate of record albums, I could go to ‘T’ and there were all the James Taylor albums I owned. By release year. I had a good system of cleaning. I’d get a clothes basket and everything that wasn’t suppose to be in say, the living room would go in the basket and get sorted in the various family members rooms later after I dusted and vacuumed the room.
So now I live with one fairly organized person and one very untidy one. Can you guess who is who? Sean is the tidy one, but only with his own possessions. I guess I taught him well. Brian was raised by a clean freak. She cleaned the house top and bottom every Tuesday. Now why would you clean a room that didn’t need it?
What all this is leading up to is that we couldn’t locate Sean’s birth certificate and SS card. I did find something from the selective services with both his birthdate and social security number printed on it. I guess this was all right. Sean’s been at Big Lots since 2. I am kinda hoping he likes making money and works more than 20 hours a week. Mom and I think this will do him good because he can be a little on the shy side like his parents (though I am a lot better than I use to be).
Rummaging through papers is a good way to get rid of clutter in that respect. I tossed a bunch of old bill receipts today. Good thing I held onto that one piece of paper.
It’s warm again today. I did some indoor things like putting liners in some of my cabinets in the kitchen. I have a pot of spaghetti sauce on for dinner-Sean’s favorite. I imagine he’ll be home at 5:30 for half an hour of dinner and go back to the store until closing.

I hope those of you who have their dads had a nice Father’s Day by sending them your love. I do have a dad, but I don’t know exactly where he is and we don’t communicate. Today was also the 6th anniversary of my maternal grandmom’s passing. It wasn’t the best day here. Brian decided to open the box of tin and then I had to get involved. Before you know it, I was cutting it and let me tell you, being left-handed and cutting with those tin snips is not easy. It’s really frustrating too. Needless to say, we messed up one piece. We did manage to hang it up on the one wall and Brian nailed it with the decorative nails before he checked to see if it was perfectly straight. But since the piece (there were only 3 pieces) is mostly hidden by the back of the oven, we are going to live with it. I am thinking of getting some edging which may help. It looks 95% better than what was there. When we do the other wall, we won’t be nailing anything until we make sure it is straight. Here is a photo and it looks so shiny and new. It’s not too bad an installation for inexperienced people like us. I curse the carpenter who at first said he would do it and backed out. ; )

We may add the edging to the blue area directly under the microwave and more tin down the wall next to the door.

Sean insisted that we take his dad out to dinner. So we piled in the newly conditioned van and headed to Ruby Tuesday. It wasn’t that crowded when we got there and we had a nice dinner. I had been a bit peeved at Brian for nailing the tin up, but this helped.

We went to Kohls and I got a few things that were on sale. The guys got Ford Mustang t-shirts.

We stopped by KMart and they had perennials for $3.75. I got a butterfly bush and a few other plants (I think one is salvia and the other is sedum). It was blasted hot today and I am feeling it tonight.

Sean is looking for his birth certificate and SS card for his job and he can’t seem to locate them. I think we needed the BC for our trip to Florida or he needed if for Penn State. I guess I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow morning!

This isn’t too attractive and we sure hope it sticks to the wall so we can add the decorative tinwork over the top of it. Actually, there is another wall I want to apply this to across from the sink . Man, did the adhesive stink! It bothered all our throats, especially Brian. So you may be asking why we used adhesive? We have plaster walls throughout most of the house and we can’t really nail things into it, except small ones for
pictures. We’d have to use the nails with the supports that open in the wall and they wouldn’t really work for this project. We did get wood screws for a few of the spots that just don’t want to lay flat. This luana covers the last of the really ugly 46 yr old adhesive used on the walls by the previous owners.
I used an acid stuff to clean the glass tiles (had on rubber gloves and safety glasses). It smelled a little like old eggs. The tiles look cleaner, but it didn’t get all the grout out of the indentations in some of the glass. I’m wondering if the sealer will do the trick. If not, I can live with it. The walls look 100% better than they did a month ago.

By the way…
I used my Panini grill tonight! I had sourdough bread that I sliced up (I think I need to slice it thinner). I made turkey clubs and ham and cheese for Brian because he had turkey for lunch). They were yummy. I will toast them a bit more next time.

Sean, my son, is an Earth and Science major at PSU soon to be a meteorology major up at the main campus in ’07.

You Are Rain

You can be warm and sexy. Or cold and unwelcoming. Either way, you slowly bring out the beauty around you. You are best known for: your touch Your dominant state: changing

Don’t you love the little marigolds? I had them last year and had to get them again for thr fairy garden. Brian gave me the miniature ‘bubble’ gazing ball a few years ago.
I have my van back and it seems to be running better (it should for almost a grand) especially the air! No popping was heard from the steering wheel, so I guess my ‘little firecracker’ will be the van’s knickname because of it’s color of red.
I did run around the store-finally. Of course I forgot a few things, I always do.
Have a great weekend!

I just ordered yet another cookbook -one with Panini sandwich recipes. I have the Cuisinart press I haven’t tried yet. I think I’ll make some turkey clubs tomorrow-that’s if I get to the store. I also ordered To Kill A Mockingbird on DVD. Thank goodness for Amazon and their used section-though these were both new.
I need to go food shopping! I’ve had a bad week with you-know-what and just couldn’t walk around the store, plus Sean wouldn’t let me use his car if I wanted. Well, he probably would if I asked nicely. ; ) I was just snacking on Cheerios-the cupboards are getting half full-lol.
Hopefully I’ll go later after we get the van if it is indeed ready to be picked up.

This is called Morpho hyacinthus, a rare and almost extinct butterfly. I believe this photo was taken in El Salvador. I think butterflies are some of the coolest creatures on earth. I even let some milkweed sprout around the side gardens for the Monarchs to enjoy.

Here’s a little info I found:
They reside in tropical jungles and can often be found in clearings. Most of their later life history is still unknown. What is known is that they normally spend their nights hanging from trees and the underside of leaves.

Microscopic ridges on the backs of their wings fracture and reflect light, making them appear iridescent, like blue gemstones. When their wings are folded they show only the bottom of their wings that are camouflaged dull brown side with “eye spots”
This allows for the morpho to fold inward the bright side of its wings when it sleeps and show only the side that blends into the environment.

The leaves were covered with ‘rust’ and all the sites said to cut them off.
Such a pretty salmon color too. It looks so bare without it’s big frilly leaves. I guess after it blooms, I am cutting it down to the ground. I happen to turn on GW’s press conference yesterday and saw hollyhocks behind him that looked like their leaves were cut back. Maybe theirs was only for show though.

How many cross stitch books do you own and how often do you use them?
Before I answer this, you have to be aware of one thing-about 7 yrs ago I wasn’t doing eBay and only had a small box of cross stitching charts let alone books. Then I began selling things and I started to find cheapie book sales and would buy one for me and one for the eBay table. Needless to say, I have an entire closed cabinet of hardback books now. I do go through them to look for certain designs. I also have several crates of leaflets. I plan to weed these out-someday-so someone else can enjoy them. Right now, I have to sell off or give away the eBay cross stitch related things.