Category: Life

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Learning About Flowers

One of my girlfriends took a temporary job last month as a delivery driver for a flower shop on Valentine’s Day. The job was just supposed to be for two days, and she just wanted to make some fast cash.

As it turns out, the owner of the shop got mad at his regular delivery driver and fired him after Valentine’s Day. So called up my girlfriend and asked her if she wanted to take the job full time, in his place. She said that the delivery part was fun and she could use the money, so she took the job. I think that is cool how things worked out for her.

Part of her job is not just delivering the flowers but also helping around the shop in the mornings when they get their daily deliveries of fresh flowers. she has to help unpack the boxes and haul buckets of fresh water into the flower cooler case. And she helps prepare the flowers by cleaning off dead leaves and thorns from the stems.

Now she is all excited to be learning about flowers and how to arrange them. I wonder if she has an undiscovered talent for floral design? I talk with her every night and she tells me everything she has learned about flowers that day. It sounds like a very cool job.

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Really Funny Commercials Lately!

There have been a lot of good commercials on TV lately. Have you noticed? Maybe the Super Bowl inspired a lot of companies to get busy and come up with cute commercials. One of my favorites is about a little kid riding in the backseat asks his parents where do babies come from. They tell this ridiculous story about astronauts and babies parachuting to earth. When the kids says, but my friend says that babies come from… and the dad freaks out and turns up the car radio real loud and starts singing. That one just cracks me up!

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Wow! Lincoln is a MUST SEE movie!

Just saw the movie, Lincoln, last night. All I can say is, “Wow!” What a great movie! It is nothing like I expected. Everyone knows about Abraham Lincoln and how he got assassinated and all that part of our American history. This movie was NOT about that! This movie was about politics in the old days and how the end of the Civil War affected the end of slavery – and it almost did not happen!

Daniel Day Lewis is SPECTACULAR as Abraham Lincoln. You totally believe that you are watching the real man – not an actor who has won the Academy Award for other movie roles like Last of the Mohicans and his other great movies. There were several excellent actors in this movie. I loved Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field, too.

This movie was nominated for all kinds of Academy Awards and should have won them all. It’s a GREAT MOVIE! Don’t wait for the DVD – go see it!!!

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Building Bridges

This morning I had a hard time falling asleep – I should not have had that Starbucks latte after work. The caffeine has messed me up but it is my own fault. So, I got online and started surfing some photography sites. I call the photoblogs my eye candy. I love to see what photographers can do with an artistic eye and a good camera.

One of the photoblogs that I really like is made by a man in Pennsylvania, John Maslowski. He takes the most beautiful photographs of waterfalls. The water always looks soft and pristine, like humans have never been there to spoil it.

The most recent photo that he posted on his photoblog is of a bridge located in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The photo is stunning in the composition and artistic perspective, but even more was the way it brought to mind the dozens of men who had to work so hard to bring the iron ore from the ground, forge it into massive beams, transport it to the site and actually construct the bridge. All this work and expense so that people would have the convenience of crossing a body of water.

Things like these bridges are what makes our country so great. We have the men who are willing and able to work hard, the men who are educated and smart enough to design massive structures, and a way to finance these massive projects to make them happen.

And, after all these deep thoughts, I guess I will turn off my laptop and try once again to get some sleep. Six o’clock will be coming early for me.

 

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Have You Heard of the Mummers Parade?

Since I do not live on the East Coast, I do not get all the news that others might get. I have never heard of anything called a Mummer’s Parade, but it is a really big deal in Philadelphia every year. It has been going on since the 1800’s. So why have I never heard of it? This is like Philadelphia’s Mardi Gras – big floats, fabulous costumes, music, dancing – a huge all day street party. They even judge the entries and give out trophies to five different Divisions of parades entries:

  • Comic Division
  • Wench Brigades
  • Fancy Division
  • String Bands
  • Fancy Brigades

I’ve never even heard of the word mummer, so I looked it up. “A masked or costumed merrymaker.” So I guess all the Mardi Gras and Carnival parade people are technically mummers, too.

I don’t know that I will ever have a chance to be in Philadelphia on New Year’s Day, but if I do have the chance, I will go with the plan to see the Mummers, too. The Mardi Gras parade I saw was so much fun! I wish I had a fancy costume and could party with people at one of the carnival balls. That would be something to look forward to all year long!

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Have You Been to a Dog Park?

Most days I take my dog for a short walk in my own yard every morning. Then, in the afternoon we walk up and down the street in my neighborhood. That’s the only safe place I know and that all the exercise we get. I’ve never taken him to a dog park. In fact, I don’t think there are any dog parks anywhere around this area. I think there is one about an hour from here, but that is awfully far to go for a walk in the park with my dog.

Oddly enough, there was a movie on cable last night called, “Dog Park.” It’s about several people in California who have dogs and develop romantic relationships because they meet at the dog park or dog obedience classes or they work together. I admit that I did not watch the entire movie, but watch I did watch was awful. It is a really lame story line, the sound track sucks, and the actors are pathetic. I have no idea how this movie even got made. Do not waste your time watching this awful movie, even if you are sick in bed with the flu and can’t find the remote control to change the channel. The dogs in the movie are the only interesting characters, especially the two Boxers.

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Bad Economy is Bad News

I was watching the television with my co-workers in the lunchroom today, and we were bewildered with the news on how the stock market lost by three-digits again and how the real estate market may have bottomed out. In my neighborhood, there are at least 6 houses that have been for sale for over a year and no one has been able to to buy any of them.

My co-workers and I discussed pretty openly how we’re tightening our belts and how so badly affected we are by the downturn in the economy. Most of us spent freely when the real estate market was up because we felt rich. We are guilty of carrying high balances on our credit cards.

One of my co-workers hesitantly told us how she’s been bogged down by credit card debt and doesn’t know how to solve her problems. She’s not alone, a lot of people are currently in financial distress. This economy really has to turn around. I hoping that after the elections everyone will have a better sense of what direction our country is going and have some sense of security and optimism restored.

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Funny photo of jack-o-lantern with piglets

funny photo of jack-o-lantern with piglets

Isn’t this photo of these piglets adorable? I carved out three pumpkins this year to put on my porch and it never occurred to me that I could put anything inside of them to take a picture! Of course, I don’t exactly have any piglets at the house. But I could have borrow a couple of kittens from my neighbor – that would have been a great photo, too!

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Getting My Halloween Costume Together

Halloween’s always been a big tradition with my friends. Every year, we have a potluck party and a contest on who will come to the party in the most outrageous and creative costume.

Last year, our male friend who dressed up as a pregnant nun won the contest. This year, I’m gonna try to win the contest by dressing against my personality. My friends know me as being very conservative and so this year, I’m gonna surprise them by getting a zombie costume. I’ve been looking online and there are some great makeup tricks to use to look like a zombie.

All the stores have Halloween costumes, makeup and props in their seasonal sections. I am going to shop around this weekend and see if I can put my zombie costume together so I’ll be ready in plenty of time for the party.

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FTD Florist Messed Up My Order

My mom’s birthday is today and since I can’t go to Florida to celebrate with her, I wanted to send her some flowers. I figured all her friends would see the flowers and be a little impressed and help make my mom feel special on her birthday – it’s a big one – one of the dreaded birthdays that ends with a zero.

So, I ordered an arrangement of flowers for her from the FTD web site. I found a discount coupon code on one of the coupon sites that said I could save 20% off anything on the site. When I went to the FTD site, there was a special message about free shipping this week, too. Actually its not shipping so much as a service charge and delivery fee.

So I picked out the arrangement of orange lilies that are her favorite flower and tried to use the coupon code to save the 20%. Well, when I used the code it made the free delivery offer disappear. I couldn’t find any way to get it back. So I canceled that order and tried to place a new order to save the service charge and it wouldn’t show that screen again. I think there was something put into my computer’s cookies that flagged the site to make the free shipping deal be excluded. That pissed me off, but they don’t give you any options to get help late at night.

So, I caved and ordered the lilies and charged it on my card with instructions to deliver the flowers today – her birthday. Well, the day went on and on and I never heard from my mom about having received the flowers. I figured she would call me as soon as they arrived. Finally, around 5:00 I called her to say Happy Birthday and she told me that a flower delivery had just arrived, minutes before I called. I forgot that it was an hour later in Florida because of the time zone change. I should have called earlier, because it turns out that the flowers they delivered were not lilies – they were red roses.

I am SO PISSED OFF. If the damn florist did not have lilies, they should have called and told me or given the order to a different florist. Of course, the fine print says that the florist has the right to substitute flowers, but the least they could have done was called and told me they didn’t have lilies. I NEVER wold have sent her roses – she HATES roses. She says roses remind her of death. Every funeral she has ever been to has had a casket spray of red roses sitting on top of the casket. That’s the LAST message you want to send a loved one on their birthday!!!!

I will NEVER use FTD again. I will call a florist in Florida myself and ask them on the phone what flowers they have and make sure they get my damn order right!