Blackberry Wine

The first year that we moved into the  house, a good buddy of mine brought a cutting of blackberry vine, it immediately got planted into the ground and has been thriving brilliantly ever since. The best part is that it is the variety of black berries that don’t have those horrible thorns all through out the vines. The past couple of years it has been producing the most wonderful berries that I now eagerly pick twice a week, eating them by the hand fulls along the way. I usually end up giving a good amount of them away to friends and neighbors and also freeze a large quantity for my own personal use and enjoyment.

In return for the original cutting that started all of this, my buddy is allowed to come at any time and pick his fill, in which he turns around and makes a great batch of wine out of them. And in the end, I end up with a couple of very nice tasting home made wine, from these delicious berries that come from my own back yard. How about that!

Home Made, Make Shift Boarding Stairs For Dad

I’m sorry but I’m just not as knowledgeable about Boarding Stairs as my brothers are at this point. But good grief I can’t even remember the last time I was on a boat or even talked about a boat for that matter. When our father finally got so ill and was having a hard time getting around back in the last years of his life, we all tried to figure out how to afford or to make some make shift Boarding Stairs for him to use to get off and on the numerous boats that we all owned and used and kept in his boat house. The same boat house that he built way before any of us where even thought of. And we did manage to have one built and he used it for several years, it looked so stupid and it stood out like a sore thumb but not a single friend or family member cared one bit as long as it made life easier and more enjoyable for our dad.

He became a land owner early in his life, and his favorite property was the property that he built the log cabin on and was located right on the best water around for his needs and wants. The water is formerly called Buckneer’s Creek, but I can assure you that it in no way resembled a creek. It was perfect for swimming, boating, fishing, crabbing, tubing, canoeing, paddle boating, water skiing, jet skiing, water boarding and any and all other types of water fun you could come up with and it still is. Only thing wrong with the picture is that he isn’t in it any more, but we are so very lucky that we didn’t lose it when he passed on and that we still get to enjoy it year after year. We have a few pictures of the boat with those boarding stairs on it, it still looks awkward but at least you can see a smile on dad’s face there right along side it.

A Whole New World

Due to so many people urging me to, I have gone ahead and started an account on Facebook. It is a whole new world to me and it will take me a bit to get it all figured out but so far so good. It’s only been a few weeks and all ready I have a ton of “friends” and several people that I’ve known from years ago have contacted me through it’s search features, you gotta love it.

Just last night I found that a friend from elementary school had found her way to my account. She provided me with her phone number and we talked for over an hour on the phone last night. Thank goodness for my unlimited long distance that I currently have on my land line. She is living in Denver Colorado, married with children and living the life, which is so good to hear. Both she and her husband are secure in their jobs, are in good health and live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood.

Her biggest news was that she and her husband were both experiencing weight issues so they decided to go over to the U.K. where she received the  tummy tuck surgery  that has become so popular these days and her husband had liposuction done on him. They incorporated a vacation away from the kids and had the surgery done at the same time. She sent me the before and after pictures of them and I have to say that I’m impressed. It’s good to know that the economy hasn’t played havoc on everyone that I know.

Wrestling

Been taking some time looking at Suplay wrestling gear that my son will need in a few weeks when school starts and he gets back into his favorite sport of wrestling. Last year he did pretty well for it being his first time. It surprised me to see that he did so well considering he really isn’t what I would consider the wrestling type, but he seems determined and I will back him all the way as long as he keeps his grades up and doesn’t get seriously hurt in the process.

Nyquil

Massive doses of the yucky green stuff is doing the trick. I know they changed the formula recently, but it still makes the stuffy nose / fever / can’t sleep / feel bad / etc / go away for 4 hours at a time.

Early to bed again and hoping for a good day tomorrow. At least the weather has gotten better and there WILL be school tomorrow.

Cowboy Up

Family Fun, Back in the Day

I remember when my little sister announced her pregnancy to the family. The first of us girls to start their own family, what an exciting time that was. We couldn’t wait to hold her a baby shower, shopping for a new baby is such good clean fun. It turned into one big family affair!

We even had fun taking her shopping for maternity clothes. Back then we had the Internet, but we didn’t use it much for shopping such as we do these days, so we would hit all the malls on the week ends looking for the latest fashions for our sister who was rapidly gaining weight and really needed some maternity clothes that would keep her comfortable, while keeping her in style, looking all cute and trendy. She was tired of wearing just the loose fitting clothes that we had gathered up for her to wear at her beginning of the pregnancy.

If we had only had the Internet at our finger tips we could have found an unlimited amount of unique and cool looking maternity clothes, like what can be found at kikisfashions.com  but it was just as well as it wouldn’t have been as much fun as what we experienced back then.

Now how cute is this? Found at Kiki’s Fashions.

1-home-pregnant-girl-right

A Galapagos Cruise For Two BFFs

My best friend really has me worried these past couple of months, her two grown sons are making her life totally miserable, so much that she had to go to the E.R. three nights ago thinking she was having a heart attack. Thank goodness it wasn’t a heart attack, but her stress level is so bad that she is physically sick from it all. And that really jerks my chain.

It really bites that she lives so far away. I would love nothing more than to drive down there and shake some sense into both of my god sons, but a seven hour drive is a bit more than I can handle right now, although I would do it in a heartbeat if I thought she really needed me to.

Anyway she is talking about the two of us getting away on one of the Galapagos Cruises that we have always talking about wanting to do since way back in the day. She is getting a good chunk of change back from Uncle Sam this year and would love nothing more than taking a trip on a Galapagos Cruise Ship with me – her BFF and have been since the fourth grade. Who would have ever thought that we would take a Galapagos Cruise together so many decades later.

Maternity Fashions

My sister-in-law’s pregnant belly is really starting to show now. It is so much fun to have a new baby on the way in the family. She is looking into purchasing some new cool Maternity Clothes online that look good, aren’t expensive and are comfortable for her to wear to work. She intends to keep working right up until the baby is due, which is supposed to be some time this up and coming June.

For her baby shower I plan on buying and giving her a moby wrap that I found on the Internet. I found a few for under $40, which is a decent price. I think that these nifty little contraptions are pretty cool and I’m sure that she will enjoy it and use it a lot, or at least I hope she does. The baby shower should be fun and I’m sure she will make out like a bandit with all kinds of goodies for her and the new baby.

Gas is over $4 a gallon

I can’t believe that we have actually come to where today I saw for the first time, the gas station down the street at the local corner store has now placed a number 4 after the $ sign for a gallon of gas. This has got to stop, it is affecting so many folks in this town and is consistently a very hot topic of conversation at the pub every evening.

I’m thinking about breaking out my bicycle that I haven’t ridden since God knows when, but they say it is easy to get back on a bike and take off. It certainly would be a healthy choice along side with the economical side of it. The only problem with riding a bike is that we have a very strict helmet law in this town for people who ride bicycles and I’m not crazy about wearing a helmet one bit. I mean after you take the darn thing off you have to deal with helmet head hair, ugh!