One More Payment, and it's All Ours!

Okay, here are some long awaited pictures of the completed pool - no landscaping yet, though. That may be awhile, since Ray says we're tapped out for the time being. The pool builder came over yesterday and showed me the equipment and told me what was needed to maintain it. I asked him a million questions and gave him tons of "what if" scenarios, and he told me that I had "NPOS" - new pool owners syndrome. He said I had an extreme case of it. Who me? I saw the first spots of algae the other day and freaked, so he sent his guy to take care of it, but he swears that I'm going to get algae every now and then. NOT! We'll see. Currently, the Polaris runs every night and I manually clean with the skimmer net each time before I get in. I also brush the steps and ledges each time I swim. Knowing myself, the honeymoon won't last long - but I'm gonna try.

OK, so here they are (the last one is the algae from the other day):

Childhood Dreams Fulfilled???

From birth to age 13, I lived in Plano, Texas. Plano is just north of Dallas, and, at that time, was one of those towns known for having good football, and a lot of wealthy residents. (And troubled teens - I got out just in time!!!) Plano is/was divided into East Plano and West Plano. West Plano was where all of the rich folks lived, and East Plano is where the rest of us were. (Of course, now there are also lots of wealthy subdivisions east of East Plano, just to confuse things.)

My sister and I were "latchkey kids" (I literally have several school pictures with my key hanging from a chain or shoe string from my neck - what a dweeb!), so we (especially me) got into a little mischief now and then, but it was necessary to keep from being bored. Our neighborhood was bordered on one side by 14th Street. At the time, this was a busy 4 lane road, with neighborhoods on one side, and commercial properties on the other. My best comparison for it is like Coursey Blvd, between Sherwood Forrest and Stumberg, is today - a good amount of well flowing traffic. The main attractions for us on 14th Street were Dairy Queen, 7-11, and farther down-past the semi residential area-Tom Thumb. When the allowance money would come in, I'd pull out the Sweet Thunder from the garage, and hit the streets. Getting from our street to the other side of 14th Street was always scary as hell, but with DQ and 7-11 in my sights, I had no choice, right? My favorite DQ Treats were the Buster Bar and Push-up. Marg liked the Dilly Bar. And we were both fascinated with the chocolate dipped ice cream cone, with the signature DQ curl at the tip of the ice cream. Crossing a side street from DQ, you could get to 7-11. I spent many hours and many dollars in that place. Loved the cherry Slurpee the best (Marg like the Coke flavored - yuck!). One day we got "accosted" as we left the store by the clerk, because he said we shoplifted (which, believe it or not, we didn't). He demanded that Margaret open her purse, but she stood her ground with all the righteous indignation that a 12 year old can muster. I think that experience ended with Mom driving up there later and chewing the guy out - and picking up a carton of True Blues while she was there.

On days when I was really brave, rich and bored, I'd take my bike all the way to the Tom Thumb. This was really scary, because, even though it was on the same side of 14th Street as our house, the sidewalk ended about half way there. Plus, you had to cross the intersection at Jupiter Road, which was like crossing Sherwood Forest Blvd at Coursey. Then, I had to worry about finding a place to lock up the bike once I got there. But, once I made it into the parking lot, it was always worth it. For me, the toy aisle rocked! I bought every new Matchbox and Hot Wheels car that came out. If I had kept all of those cars, and kept them in mint condition, I could retire right now. But I wasn't thinking about that back then. It was way too much fun to build my Lincoln Log houses and have my cars drive back and forth. (If this part of the story is sounding too much like a normal childhood, just know that in my Matchbox/Hot Wheels/Lincoln Logs scenarios, most of the visiting was for illicit purposes - I watched a lot of Prime Time TV at that age.)



The other Nirvana for us growing up was Stuckey's. (Has the phrase "white trash childhood" passed through your thoughts yet?) My grandparents lived about an hour north of us, and about half way between our houses was a Stuckey's. We usually visited them once a month or so, and more often in the summers. In all of those trips I cannot remember a single incident when Margaret and I did not BEG my mother to stop at Stuckey's. We knew which exit it was on, so for about 5 miles in advance, we'd start working her over. "Please, Mama. Please, Mama. Oh please, oh please, oh please. Pleeeeeeeease let us stop - just this once. We never get to stop. I've got to go to the bathroom - really bad. I don't think I can hold it." I'll admit it - my memory is not what it used to be - but I don't think she ever stopped. (I'm sure she stopped occasionally, but I have no recollection of ever going in there.) In our most desperate attempts to get her to stop, we'd gather together all of our supernatural abilities, and mimic her turning the steering wheel onto the exit ramp. The concentration was uncanny. And, every now and then, it would almost work. The car WOULD actually start to veer towards the ramp. But, she'd always regain control, and the green roof would fly past us. Damn - we almost had her that time. And, then, mystically, things would revert to normal as if Stuckey's didn't even exist. "How much longer 'til we get there? She's kicking my seat!!!"

So why all of the nostalgia? Well, when Ray and I drove back to Baton Rouge from Lexington, we were looking for something to eat. We were approaching Birmingham, and I have rules for when and where we can stop (either before or after a big town, not in it because that's usually where the scary parts are). So it's getting close to 6:00, and I go into my "where are we going to stop" mode. And then...up ahead on the right...I see it. The green roof and yellow sign of a Stuckey's. OH...MY...GOSH - am I seeing what I think I'm seeing? Because it wasn't JUST a Stuckey's - it was a Stuckey's with a Dairy Queen attached! Ding, ding, ding - we have a winner!


So we pull into the parking lot, and I manage to stay in the car at least until Ray puts it in Park. All I'm thinking is "Steak Finger Basket and worthless junk to spend money on!" OK, I won't drag it out. DQ sucked! They no longer have Steak Finger Baskets, and I don't think I recognized a single thing on the Ice Cream part of the menu. Talk about disappointment. But I still had Stuckey's waiting for me. But, as much as I tried, couldn't find a single cheesy souvenir that I wanted. I ended up buying a bag of Cherry Sours and Peanut Butter Logs. What a bummer!

So, maybe my childhood wasn't so bad. And maybe Mom knew what she was doing by denying us the experience of going to Stuckey's (yes, there's still bitterness there). All I can say is that I think I've gotten it out of my system (for now).

P.S. Whether I'm wrong about this or not, I don't REALLY think I had a total white trash childhood - that was just poetic license. Don't get me wrong - Margaret and I were a bit on the bumpkin side. In fact, she still is. We didn't have a lot of money, but we always had what we needed. But, both of my parents always insisted on us having good manners and knowing wrong from right. Of course knowing wrong from right doesn't mean I always chose right. I was kind of like the 1970's female Eddie Haskel. But I really DIDN'T take anything from the 7-11...that day.

I'll post my pictures of the not so exciting visit to Dairy Queen and Stuckey's the next time I get on my PC at home.

What to do when you stay home sick

I stayed home today, because I was feeling crampy, but got on the computer to send myself an email to work. When I checked my home email account, I saw this link that my sister sent me to a site called "My Heritage." On the site, there is a face recognition program, where you can upload picutures, and it will tell you what celebrities you look like. I'm sure it's pretty bogus, and just uses basic facial shapes and features, but the more pictures I uploaded, the more I found myself on the edge of my seat, hoping that somebody cool would pop up. I'm such a geek - what can I say?

So, here are the pictures that I used on the site, and below are the results, in order with the pictures, which should be viewed from left to right, top to bottom.


The first shot returned Brett Hull (whoever that is) and a bunch of other guys. Also some Asians.

On the next one where I was smiling, I looked almost exclusively like women (pretty ones, too), but I didn't see the resemblance in most of the cases.

I ran one of Ray, and it said he looked like Hugo Weaving (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert), Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean), but it also said he looked like Denzel Washington, Chuck Norris and Gabriel Byrne. Go figure. I would have guessed Yul Brenner or something.

News Flash!!! The next one I ran of me in my Harley jacket said 59% like Michael Landon! That's "Pa Ingalls" to those 'Little House on the Prairie fans'. Whoppee! Also, Annette Benning, James Stewart and Arial Sharon. So far, in the three pics I'd run of me, I hadn't gotten the same person twice.

The next one I ran with my old glasses and when I first got my haircut short, returned Brad Pitt and Richard Gere. Damn, I was one hot looking Dude!

Ran another picture, that is a bit infamous to the old AFS crew, titled "Ouch," and got Jessica Alba, Jake Gyllenhaal, Liem Neeson, and Art Garfunkel (probably due to the hair on that one). At this point, I'm thinking of moving to Beverly - Hills, that is.

Then I ran one I took of Ternisa getting back on the bus in Lexington, after sweating at one of the horse farms. She got Raven Symone, Reese Witherspoon, Isabella Rossellini and Nancy Kerrigan. There were six other women it compared her too - all attractive. Not ONE time did it say she looked like a boy. Bitch.

Next I ran one of my niece, Lauren. She was about 6 months old in the picture, and very cute with her chubby cheeks. Some of her matches came back as Kate Winslet, Donnie Osmond (Lucky!), Gandhi, and Muhhamed Ali.

Finally, I ran one of me at Halloween, 2001, dressed up as my alter ego, "Spike". Who does Spike resemble? How about Regis Philbin for a start. Then there's Rene Russo, Jessica Alba (my first repeat, so it must be true), Estella Warren, and finally, Miss Thing herself...Whitney Houston. Oh, hell to the yes!

For each of the pictures, it gives you about 10 "celebrities" that match with you. I didn't list them all, because I didn't know half of them (although the site brags that it has the faces of the world's 3,200 most famous men and women) . But overall, my commonalities were men, Asians, Hispanics, and Jessica Alba. I guess I'll fare quite well in our continuously evolving melting pot of a society.

So, here's the link to the site. If you find yourself feeling crummy one day, it may cheer you up (or not). http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/face-recognition.php

As for me, I think I'm going back to bed now. 

Ready for Home

It's 12:15 am here in Nashville, and I'm ready to get home. The conference dinner and dancing ended at midnight, but I bailed about 11:30 to get online so that I could print our boarding passes and check e-mail. As usual, there were some 'kids' in here, taking up the computer space, but I managed to get on one that looked like it was having technical difficulties. Being the adult that I am, I went and asked the Front Desk how to fix it. It's nice having the confidence of a grown-up sometimes (not that I have it all of the time - not that evolved yet).
Anyway, I guess I'll go upstairs and try to pack a little bit, as Ray is still partying. The Hospitality Suite will be open until 1:00, so I told him that's his curfew. We'll see if he abides by it. Doubtful.
As much as I'm ready to get home, I certainly don't want to get back to work! We moved into our new building while I've been here, so I have boxes to unpack, as well as requests and problems that have been building up over the past week. Oh well, this, too, shall pass.
Guess I'll go pack and check on T.S. Chris on The Weather Channel. For those of you not in Louisiana, please say a prayer that Chris doesn't head our way.
Oh yeah, not much exciting to report from Nashville, other than I am now calling Ray and I the 'Alpha and Omega of Door Prizes.' I won the very first door prize given out - a digital camera and a memory card! It's probably not any nicer than the one I have (still only 4MB pictures), but it's small, takes decent pictures, and I'm giving it to Ray since he has never gone digital. This was a door prize drawn from names of people who registered early, and was sponsored by the organization. Ray won the very last prize of the conference, an American Express prepaid gift card for $100. Pretty cool, huh? We rock!
Later ----