hello from the warm, sunny Keys!

Hello from the sunny, warm Keys! I'm shopping for internet access, but it's expensive down here. DSL isn't available, which leaves cable, satellite, or dialup. We shall see.

I've been doing some cleanup yard work; the property looks a little less abandoned now. I can't send photos to my blog with this thing, so you'll have to take my word for it.

We're heading out to a steak dinner at the Moose in a little while. It's an interesting place. I wonder if they have internet access there? They're close to the library....

Next Wed. I fly to Orlando to spend a few days with the kids. A had her third Suppralin implant on Monday and is doing well. She's growing at a normal rate now.

Did I mention that it's sunny and warm here? *ducks and covers*

Jet set

That's me. I'm part of the jet set. Is that phrase even used anymore?

Saturday was.....interesting. It had occurred to me that maybe I shouldn't travel on the 13th, but since it wasn't Friday, I ignored the thought. I shouldn't have. Or maybe I just should have been a little more observant.

I needed a Pepsi or iced tea, so on my way out of town I swung past McDonalds, but there was a long line of cars in the takeout lane, so I went on to Kentucky Fried Chicken. I didn't want to get out of the car. That came back to haunt me (and taunt me) a few minutes later when I discovered that KFC didn't open for another 15 minutes and turned right into the parking lot of the business next door, because driving all the way through the drive-through lane and making an immediate right turn was too much trouble. So I turned. I discovered, to my horror, that there was no opening in the curb to allow me to turn, so one front wheel went over the curb and the car got hung up.

It wouldn't budge.

No one would answer my frantic knocks at KFC, so I walked--in the rain--over to the convenience store I had attempted to drive to. No men there, only two short women. I think that one of them could have single-handedly picked up the car and moved it back a few feet, but she declined. I walked--in the rain--forgetting to buy my Pepsi while I was in the store--to KFC and banged on the window, catching the manager's attention. Two women there. Betty called a tow truck, which arrived really quickly, and within a few minutes I was on my way to the bank. I hadn't planned a bank stop, but I couldn't find my AAA card and the woman on the phone couldn't find our file online because, of course, our membership is in the WestByGodVirginia division and she couldn't access that. I guess the internet doesn't cross state lines or something.

The kind tow-truck man wouldn't take a check, and I only had $20 in cash, so he followed me to the stupid convenience store to the ATM, where I once again forgot to buy a bottle of Pepsi. I forgot to ask him for a receipt. When I called Tom, he sweetly reminded me that our car insurance has tow insurance. Whoops.

So, anyway, I wrote a check from Tom's account to cover what I'd taken out of mine, dropped it at the bank, then stopped at Taco Bell for my damn Pepsi.

I got to Mom and Dad's house in plenty of time for them to get me to the airport. My suitcase was so heavy that I decided, at the last minute, to check it at the gate so I wouldn't have to injure myself trying to get it in the overhead bin. Had to change planes in Atlanta, which airport I hate with a passion, but got there in time to go to the bathroom and board the plane.

The plane got to FLL and we had to wait an hour before the baggage came off the plane. I kept waiting because mine didn't appear. Of course not. A very nice lady from AirTran, Jean, spent an hour with me trying first to find the bag then trying to figure out where it went. She was so sweet that I didn't get all bent out of shape about the fact that the clothes I would wear to the interview were in that damned bag.

We went on home, which isn't as fun a drive as it is in the daytime. At night, without the scenery, it's just a long-ass drive.

At midnight, Jean called to tell me that my bag had come in and she would send it to me right away. At 7:30 the phone rang again and my bag was on our front porch.

All's well that ends well.

We went to the Marathon Seafood Festival on Sunday afternoon. Beautiful day, 73 degrees, light breeze. Sunny. That night we went out to eat with Donna and James and spent the night at the condo. Which, I might add, has a wonderful high-end mattress in the master suite.

Monday morning we went back home and spent some time in the yard. Later I took a shower and we headed back to Marathon for my interview. Which I totally blew.

How many times have I worked with kids on those stupid interview questions? You know, the standard "what is your best quality" kind. I'd even come up with answers for them. I should have written them on my arm. I could not remember one thing and wasn't even able to come up with something that sounded semi-intelligent.

I suspect that I won't get that job.

But no big deal. It was experience, I'll know better next time, and I had three lovely days in the Keys.

PocketEdward™ had some adventures around the yard. Tom wasn't thrilled to see him. I just don't understand why not.

First he checked out the demolition Tom's done in the kitchen. The subfloor is in terrible shape.

He looked at the pool and wished he could swim well enough to catch the frog living in there.




He turned up his nose at some of our leftovers.




He enjoyed some sparkle time




And explored the jungle.

Okay, he can't explore the damn jungle. I can't get that damn photo to upload.

He snacked on a black panther in the jungle.




He didn't have good luck with the tiger, though.



Ahhhhh.

Here he runs through the jungle.

He took time to smell the bouganville. Evidentally thorns don't bother vampires.




He indulged in a quick snack, then



PocketEdward™ finally found his nuts.





With that, I leave you for now. 'Cause I'm heading back to Richmond tonight so I can catch my nonstop flight to FLL tomorrow morning. Back home to the Keys. For 16 days.

Life is good.

Guess who's going to Florida twice in one week?

That's right. I am.

Friday afternoon I found a voice message (gee, was that hard to do?) from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. I'd applied for an administrative assistant job there at the end of January. I called and was asked to come to an interview on Monday, March 15. Shoot, I'm going to be there March 19-April 4. We talked for 10 or 15 minutes, laughing; I really enjoyed myself. They'd chosen 7 applicants to interview, and all have to be interviewed by the same people (who are from offices elsewhere in the state).

I called Tom and explored the possibility for flying down for a few days so I could go to the interview. We decided that I'd check into airfare. I found some that wasn't as horrible as others, so I called the office and left a message that I will be there for the interview. I'll fly down Saturday evening and back home Tuesday night. Then, and this is the fun part, I'll work for two days and fly back to Florida on Friday the 19th. For two weeks.

I've been trying to find out more about the Florida F&WCC but haven't succeeded. I mean, I know that they deal with endangered animals, fishing and hunting licenses, etc., but this is a research facility. I should try to know a little more before I actually interview there.

Wish me luck!

Let's ALL sign up!

Aunt Becky needs our help.

She's the driving force behind Mommy Wants Vodka, one of my favorite blogs. This woman can write. She makes me laugh and cry and snork Pepsi through my nose, all at the same time. And she has written some stuff that she really wants to get published, but she needs all of us to help her.

Click on the title and check out her website. She explains what's going on and what she wants us to do. I've already emailed her potential publisher/agent/whoever the hell it is twice, with real email addresses. I think I'll go back and add a few made-up ones, just to help her get her numbers up higher.

If you leave a real email address, she'll send you a copy of one chapter. Free.

I'd say it's worth it!

sNOOOOOOOOw!!!!!!

It's snowing. Again. I hope that this is the very last time that I see snow falling.

Floridays

I've done it. I've decided to retire and move to Florida. Sooner, rather than later.

End of the school year in June.

I could stay here for another 3 years to get full retirement. I could also be laid off since Virginia's budget is in such horrendous shape and cuts are coming in the next couple of months. It's not going to get any better for at least two years. No step or cost of living increases were given to us this year, and we sure won't get them for the next two years, at least.

I think it's time to cut and run.

I'll still have to work. My retirement check is much less than half of what I make now (which isn't all THAT much to start with). I'll lose about $230 a month by leaving three years early, but some of that may be made up by an early retirement option with a lump-sum payment in June, if it's passed. Funny, I decided last week that I need to get to Florida with Tom, and today it was announced, just after I'd emailed the HR guy about retiring, that they were considering an early retirement incentive.

Sort of seems meant to be.

Sisters' Weekend

I don't want Pocket Edward to see the blasphemous things written about him on FaceBook.

Socks that I've knit for Joan, me, and Betty.

So this is what we get when we finally buy a brand new car

(Click on title)

Even with all the snow we've had, I haven't noticed any problems with the anti-lock break system. Especially since this is where it's been most of the last three weeks:

Has all of Toyota's negative publicity caused me to shun them? No. Dad bought his first new Toyota in 1971 and put well over 200,000 miles on it then sold it for almost what he paid for it. I've had Toyotas since 1988 and wouldn't think of buying anything else. They've all been good cars that went for 225,000 miles or more with little major work. I fully expect this Prius to do as well.

But don't say that out loud. Every time I say something good about my car, something goes wrong, so I'm not going to risk it!

I'll be mourning Zippy for a long time. He was the perfect little companion.

This is the last photo I took of him, Saturday, February 6. I went outside to take photos of the snow, and he perked up when he saw me go to the door with my coat on. He was a terribly sick little boy, but he was still interested in going outside. Late that night, when we took him to the emergency vet, he could barely stand up, but when we said "go bye-bye in the car?" he did one last, slow zip (he'd prance in circles when he was excited) and trotted out the door and around the car, all by himself. Zippy The Wonder Dog.

I haven't mentioned knitting in a long time. I did very little after the middle of December; I drove to Florida by myself (with Zip in the passenger seat) so I didn't have that time to knit. I've been pretty scattered; I keep starting projects, getting bored, and going on to something else. I've gotten about half of Upstairs Shawl (ravelry link) done, but not in a lace yarn. I found some cool cotton/synthetic yarn, worsted weight, on sale at the fabric shop in town; had been about $7 a ball, reduced to $1 each. It called to me. I don't know it I'll keep it for myself or give it away. I just needed to knit it. The lady who owns the Key West knit shop, Knit Wits of Key West, was wearing it the day I went in before Christmas to buy a last-minute hank of yarn, and I was smitten. Some day I might photograph it.

Then I had to start a pair of socks for Betty. We're kinda particular about our socks. For years Betty gave each of us several pairs of Birkenstock socks for Christmas; they wear forever. They're making fewer these days. Betty couldn't find any that she liked, and it was COLD, so I cast on a pair for her. The yarn is superwash wool that I bought at the local yarn sh0p, from a local dyer, Dyepot. The colors didn't photograph true to the yarn, but you can get an idea. The yarn is almost luminous, a deeper red than what shows in the photo.



I also knit a beautiful skinny scarf from Tilli Thomas' Rock Star American Beauty. This yarn is incredible; it's pure silk with a thread of tiny beads added. One hank is $40; Joan gave it to me for my birthday. Bought in Key West, too, which makes it even better. I used the kpixie Valentine Sequin Scarf pattern and love it. It's a nice long skinny scarf, and the yarn is just so luscious.

I might add more later; right now, homemade soup is calling my name.

Sparkly

With a little (okay, a lot of) help from bare minerals makeup, Pocket Edward™ now sparkles in the sun. Isn't he impressive?

Snow, rinse, repeat

*sigh*

I should have known that, by planning to move to the Keys for good this summer (if all works out), I'd be dooming this area to The Winter from Hell.

The last few winters have had really cold spells but very little snow. Tom and I have been married for over four years; not once during that time have I not been able to get in and out of the driveway at the old homestead. It helped that Tom's truck is four-wheel drive. But now the truck is with Tom at our place in the Keys and it seems that a Prius (whose brakes seem to be working very well, thank you, although I've driven it very little this year) just isn't up to the task of plowing through more than an inch or two of snow.

In 1995-96 we had a blizzard that closed city schools for over a week and county schools for two weeks. That's when I made the transition from the county school system to the city's; I gave my two-weeks' notice and didn't work again until the city schools opened more than two weeks later.

I think that we had something like 53" of snow that winter. We've already passed that and it's only Feb. 10. I last worked on the 4th, and school has been closed since then. It's still up in the air if we'll go tomorrow. Watch out, Spring Break, we may lose you.

So, yeah. The Winter from Hell. Weeks of single-digit temperatures. Snow after snow after snow. Today we have a high-wind advisory. Does it get any better than this.



ETA: No school tomorrow. Five days in a row, seven since the end of January. *sigh*

Pocket Edward is on the job

Pocket Edward™ debates using the doggy door to scope out the back yard.



He tries to scale the Matterhorn.



Icicles! The perfect weapon.



Must. Reach. Bella.




Baby the Quaker Parrot says, "Vegetarian vampire my ass."

R.I.P., Zip

Poor little Zippy. Thursday morning he was lethargic and vomiting, so I took him to our vet. Bob gave him subcutaneous fluids, shots for nausea and an anti-inflammatory, and liquid amoxicillin. Zip had a moderately high fever.

Thursday evening, Zip was almost himself, begging for food, perky, happy. He ate a little chicken and rice. Friday he was lethargic again, just drinking water. Of course, it had snowed all day and no local vets were open, much less Bob, whose office is 40 miles away over a mountain. The emergency vet's office didn't open till 6 p.m., and the snow was too bad to attempt the drive (20 miles away).

It snowed all day Saturday. Zip vomited in the afternoon, bringing up food that he'd eaten on Wednesday. Totally undigested. We started giving him a few tablespoons of water every half hour; he kept it down for a couple of hours, but started vomiting again.

We decided he needed to see the vet that night, so after digging Betty's car out of the driveway we took Zippy outside. He was so happy; he even performed one last zip on the way out. He loved to ride in the car.

We managed to get out of the driveway but got stuck in the road right in front of the house. Greg dug us out, and after a little pushing, we were on our way.

It was such a surreal trip. We stayed off the interstate; there have been some nasty accidents on there during snow. The main road was covered with snow, but it had been plowed and we were able to drive along at 30 mph. Fortunately there was very little other traffic; we drove down the center of the four-lane road without any trouble.

We got to the vet's office after 11 p.m. We were taken into the examining room right away and Zippy was examined. His temperature was normal but he was still vomiting.

After blood work, the verdict was in; Zippy was a seriously sick little boy. He was severely diabetic; the highest the machine would register was >700, and that's where his blood sugar was. He also had kidney disease and pancreatitis. He would have never been able to have any table food or treats ever again. Zippy loved his treats. The very last thing that he ate and kept down was two tiny bites of a muffin.

After debating the options, and a lot of crying, I decided it was better to let Zippy go peacefully rather than hospitalize him for up to a week to stabilize his diabetes and treat the pancreatitis. He would have had to have shots twice daily.

He died very quickly and peacefully after Betty and I took turns holding him and telling him how much we love him.

We miss him terribly.

Now what?

I've almost finished reading Eclipse for the third time. I won't go home again till Tom comes up in about 10 days, and Breaking Dawn is at home. I may have to go to the library.

.

.

.

.

Pocket Edward ™ ETA: Wednesday.

And I cancelled the New Moon movie order with Amazon because I found out that, for only $5 more, one can buy it from Target with a 3rd disk of special features and a cell from the movie.

I've never watched the 3rd disk of Twilight, but if one is available, then one must have it.

Shut up. I'm not as bad off as the people who buy one, then see it offered with a little something more at another site, and buy that one, then the next time they see something different, get that too.

Welcome to the Dark Side, Granddaughter

Last night, during a marathon call, my oldest granddaughter brought up Twilight. (She knows me so well.) She's never exhibited any curiosity about the book or movie; on the contrary, she couldn't be less interested. Last year she was irritated because her teacher was in love with the series and talked about it a lot in class. This time, though, she had some questions.

"Lots" of girls in her class are reading the series. She could even name three of the four books. She doesn't have a clue what Twilight Girl's name actually is, but she wanted to know if TG ever gets bit and turned into a vampire. I said, "Do you really want to know?" "Yes!" "But if you ever decide to read the books, it's spoiled for you." "I'm not going to read them. Does she turn into a vampire?" So I told her yes, she does.

"Which book?" "Breaking Dawn, the fourth and last book." "So why are all these books named night names? What do they have to do with anything?" I told her that I'd read about them but didn't remember what I'd read (note to self: research this), but I thought that they all have to do with the fact that, in other vampire stories, vampires couldn't go outside during the day because they'd burn to ashes if the sun touched them. In the Twilight series, that's not the case, because they can go outside any time they want to, but their skin sparkles in the sun, so people would know something weird was going on. And no one could know that there are real vampires.

Also, I told her, the names of the books seem to represent the story's progression, with Twilight being the one where Bella (or Twilight Girl) meets Twilight Boy and they fall in love. In New Moon, they're separated by Edward's misguided but heartfelt belief that Bella is better off, and safer, without him, and she goes into a deep depression, represented by the darkness of night during a new moon.

"What about Eclipse? Isn't that about the sun?" Well, it can be, but here it's the bright shining ring of moon around the dark shadow the sun throws onto it, representing the reunion of Bella and Edward and their happiness. And Breaking Dawn is the book that ends the story, with everything coming together and the dark of night giving way to the bright sunrise.

Damn. If I do say so myself, I'm impressed. I just pulled all of that out of my ass without any thought. It may be totally off-course, but it really does sound good.

I told A that I'll send her Twilight if she ever wants to read it; I have no problem with a 10-year-old reading the first three books in the series. (I told her she can't read Breaking Dawn until she's 16, which may have been the wrong thing to say.) She said she doesn't want to read it since I can tell her all about it.

But today I ordered Twilight from Amazon to be delivered to her house with the note: "A, you don't have to read this book now, or ever, if you don't want to. I've had so much fun talking to you about it that I want you to have a copy of one of my favorite books." Maybe eventually she'll read it, maybe not. It doesn't matter.





I may or may not have also ordered New Moon the Movie and a Pocket Edward™. We won't discuss that.

Burning a theme with ponzy-like structure

"Hi there!I would like to burn a theme at here. There is such a thing, called HYIP, or High Yield Investment Program. It reminds of ponzy-like structure, but in rare cases one may happen to meet a company that really pays up to 2% daily not on invested money, but from real profits.For quite a long time, I make money with the help of these programs. I'm with no money problems now, but there are heights that must be conquered . I get now up to 2G a day , and I started with funny 500 bucks. Right now, I'm very close at catching at last a guaranteed variant to make a sharp rise . Visit my blog to get additional info."

Just what I've always wanted to do!!! How did this person know?

P. S. I'll never understand "ponzy scheme". And I don't care to.

Spam

This is one of the more....creative spam comments that I've gotten:

"Good day, sun shines!There have were times of hardship when I didn't know about opportunities of getting high yields on investments. I was a dump and downright stupid person. I have never thought that there weren't any need in big starting capital.Now, I feel good, I begin to get real money. It gets down to select a correct partner who uses your money in a right way - that is incorporate it in real business, parts and divides the profit with me.You may ask, if there are such firms? I have to tell the truth, YES, there are. Please be informed of one of them:"

One would think that Rule No. 1 for Good Spamming would be using correct grammer and subject/verb agreement, at least.

Hello to Germany

*waves*

Hi, person from Germany who's googling Edward Cullen and ended up here!

Helloooooooo???

*tap tap tap*

Is anyone out there?

*shields eyes with hand*

I can see you, really, I can, but I can't hear you.

I know that someone(s) from Europe and the U.S. and the U.K. and Panama and even someone from Slovakia have googled "italy-shirtless-edward-new moon" and "robert-pattison-new-moon-shirtless" and "edward-cullen" and "vanity-fair-italy-edward-and-bella".

And I thought I had it bad.

Come on, please leave a comment if you land here from any search. Even though there are some google searches I'd rather not be associated with, I'd sure like to know who's out there.

*crickets chirping*

Thank God for Mike!

Mike, my son-in-law, is an electrician. He'd volunteered last summer to come to our place in the Keys and check out the electrical system at The Cat House once we bought it, which is very nice of him since we're not paying him anything to do it. He happened to score two days off this week after working 8 days straight, so yesterday Tom picked him up just south of Orlando and they headed back to the Keys. Mike has spent the entire day working on getting the electrical system hooked up correctly.

It's a good thing that the expert was there. Turns out that the (improperly installed) box (whatever that thingy with the breakers in it is called) has been sparking for some time and the whole house could have gone up in flames at just about any time. The box was in the old master closet which backed up to the laundry nook, and the dryer had been vented into the wall between the two. Thank God Tom had taken out that wall weeks ago and gotten years' worth of dryer lint ripped out, because it probably would have caught fire when the electricity was turned on.

Just another example of the quality work put into that house by its previous owners.

*snork*

So. If you like to laugh until you cry and make the very kind people you work with think that you just got bad news because you're quietly shaking and tears are running down your face and you have to blow your nose before you can say anything,



then you have to read this.

Do yourself a favor and wear Depends, okay?