Month: May 2011

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Jump and Climb

The neighbor came by this morning to warn me about this weekend. They are having a kids birthday party and the place will be noisy and busy with a couple dozen kids running and screaming across the yards. I remember how it as last year, and can’t believe its already been year since that birthday party.

There is just something about 20 eight and nine year olds running around that gives me a headache just thinking about it. That is way too much energy and noise for me. But for a lot of people, throwing kids birthday parties is like a competitive sport. They hire Party and Event Rentals companies to handle all the details for their kid and the friends, and then the parents don’t have to do much but run the video recorder and chit chat with the other parents who come to the party.

The smart ones hire out the Food Catering, the entertainment and the clean up. The parties in my neighborhood have come a long way since the days when I was a kid and thought that a couple hours in the mall arcade with unlimited tokens was the ultimate party. Nowadays they have
Bounce House Rentals, clowns, face painters, carnival games and all kinds of entertainment options. Its good to be a kid.

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Sports Hero

When we create our Facebook accounts we are supposed to fill out a lot of information fields describing what we like, favorite quotes, where we’ve lived or grown up – all kinds of information. Which I am fine with that – I don’t put up anything on the internet that is going to come back some day and bite me.I’m sensitive to privacy issues, but then again,  don’t have anything to hide, either.

But in my rush to get the account set up, I had skipped over some of the fields and just today realized that I needed to add some details. The section about your favorite TV shows, movies, books and sports got neglected the first time around. So I added some information.

As a kid, I was a Redskins fan and a Baltimore Orioles fan. I didn’t care about NASCAR or hockey, and don’t really remember much about basketball. So to pick a sports hero, I would have to go with Cal Ripken, Jr. This man was not only a great baseball player, he was a family man and a good citizen. You never heard anything bad about Cal Ripken. I’m glad he was able to have such a gerat career, he made good money, and now he is retired and still doing good things, like his work with kids.

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Free Sounds Good

My niece and her husband are tightening their belts since she is pregnant again and isn’t going to be able to work for awhile. So thinks that they will be OK with bills if hey cut back on a few things and if she takes advantage of coupons and free samples by searching online for deals.

We talked about the real math of what she was earning after expenses and she was really shocked to see how little real money she was bringing home in her paycheck. She took 30% off the top for taxes, then had to take off child care, her car payment/car insurance/gas, oil, tires and then a lot more things she hadn’t thought of. Like the true cost of lunch away from home, the cost of convenience foods for dinners when she was too tired or too rushed to cook, the cost of nice clothes, dry cleaning and pantyhose. The actual net cash she was seeing was less than $50 a week.

We all believe that she could save that same net amount by looking for Free Stuff online and using coupons, and being more budget conscious if she stayed home with the kids instead of working outside of the home.  Finding Freebies is even fun – it is like a treasure hunt. She gets online in the living room while her daughter plays and finds ways to save money. I wish it were that easy for the rest of us!

 

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The Derby

This morning I kicked myself for being so stupid. I totally missed the Kentucky Derby yesterday. I got busy outside and forgot about the time. I was cutting the grass and started hacking away at the shrubbery and I pulled up some morning glory vines that were taking over the whole side of the garage. The next thing I knew, it was time for dinner, so I washed up and drove down to KFC and picked up some chicken.

Never even turned on the TV yesterday until the 11:00 news came on and I fell asleep before the sports report. It didn’t even come to mind until I picked up the Sunday paper and read about it in the paper. Duh!

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Home on the Range

Today I called my mom to wish her Happy Mother’s Day since I found out she won’t be home tomorrow. My sister was there with her kids, so she got on the phone to say hi. Since she is a mother, too, I wished her happy Mother’s Day and we chatted for a few minutes. It seems like we never talk much anymore since she moved to Florida a couple of years ago. But it sounds like Florida isn’t working out – she might be moving again.

When my sister told me she is thinking about moving to Texas, all I could think of was the song, “Home, Home on the Range.” Visions of cowboys and cowgirls and horses sprang to mind. While I was processing the visions of dusty trails, she was rattling on about Dallas Homes for Sale and how much she wants to move west.

I’m the first one to admit that I know nothing about Dallas Real Estate and I couldn’t help with much except showing up a day or tow before she gets a moving truck so I can help her pack and move her stuff.

I asked her if the Dallas Homes For Sale were anything like the one she used to have in Virginia, and she says that they have plenty of nice neighborhoods all around the Dallas and Fort Worth areas like her old neighborhood. It’s just a matter of knowing where you are going to be working, so you can focus on finding something nice near the office or job site. Sorry to say that I can’t help with that, either. But it sounds like she has got the ball rolling and everything is under control.

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Mother Day Wishes

Wish I could see my mom this year for Mother’s Day, but work is crazy busy and they wouldn’t let me have any time off for a quick trip out of town. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to go, I decided to send her some flowers and I found a good deal online.

Thanks to my sister who gave me the tip about checking for online coupon codes before ordering anything online. I typed in flowers discount code into the search engine and I got a deal that saved me money off the cost of the flowers and also gave me free delivery.

Turns out that I saved so much money with the coupon code that I was able to upgrade the arrangement I had picked out and sent her an even bigger bunch of flowers. That worked out great, and I’ll call her on Mother’s Day, too, to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day on the phone.

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Summer Means Swimming

We’ve hit 80 degrees a couple of times already, so I’m starting to think SUMMER. As much as I like the beach, sometimes you don’t want to deal with the parking issues, the long hike, and the sand in your shoes just to get some swimming. There are plenty of days when I would really like to get home from work, throw on my swim trunks and jump in a swimming pool.

Our neighborhood does not have a community pool – one of the drawbacks of living in a house instead of an apartment. So, we’ve been looking at above ground swimming pools to fit in a corner of our backyard. Both of our neighbors have installed high privacy fences, so all we would have to do is put up a fence cross the back – for safety.

I know the neighbors would want to get to be better friends if they thought we would invite them over for a swim in our backyard pool. And we could have some righteous pool parties on Friday nights, with the barbecue grill smoking and some ice cold beverages. Maybe even some string lights around the edges and a couple of outdoor speakers for good music. It’s starting to sound like a really good plan to me.

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A Quick Read

Most days I keep one or two paperbacks in the truck so I have something to read if we have a long wait on the job site. Today was one of those days where we had to wait for the concrete truck and there was nothing to do until he got here. So I picked up the “Boneman’s Daughters” and sat under a tree for about 40 minutes.

It’s by Ted Dekker and he writes in a very readable style. It’s a thriller about a serial killer and the FBI mistakenly thinking the father of a victim is a suspect. I’m not through with it yet, but it’s a good book so far. I got about half way through when the truck finally showed up.

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Old Fashioned Remedies Still Work

When you have a large family like I do, it seems here are a lot of memories of kids getting sick or being hurt. I know my folks had more than their share of doctor visits for us kids. We all got the measles at the same time, and we all got the chicken pox, although that was spread out over many years. My sister got pneumonia once, and we had to use a Vaporizer in her bedroom to help her breathe.

I guess we always thought that Vaporizers were just for babies, but it tuns out that all ages can benefit from them. I know my sister had to use one for almost to months – she was so sick that she didn’t come out of her room for a long time, and she almost failed school because she missed so much class time.

Now, that same sister has kids and she swears by the Volcano Vaporizer that she got when her son was sick with bronchitis. She also uses it to help when she has spring time allergy attacks. It seems that after all these years and all the news things the doctors can do today, that sometimes the old fashioned remedies still work the best.

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May Day

Here it is, the first of May already. I can’t believe that summer is just a few weeks way. Around here, the weather has gotten warm and everything is blooming. But by Memorial Day, it will be summer for us.

I’m looking forward to some nice outdoor concerts at the beach and maybe going camping for a couple of weekends. I’m up for just about anything, now that the weather is so much nicer.